Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 20 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A propositional geometric theory has primitive propositions and sequents between formulas built with finite conjunction and arbitrary set-indexed disjunction. Start with the free frame on the primitives, identify conjunction with meet and disjunction with join, and impose each sequent as an inequality. The resulting quotient frame is . In the sheaf topos , interpret each primitive as the subterminal sheaf corresponding to its generating open. Operations on these subterminal sheaves are precisely the frame operations, so every imposed sequent is valid. This constructs the canonical model.
For a commutative ring , denote the generator attached to by . The presentation impliesThe product equality uses the multiplication implication in one direction and both factor implications in the other; the latter follow by commuting . A ring homomorphism sends these relations to the corresponding ones in . It therefore gives a frame homomorphism and hence a map of locales.
If , thenso the two opens cover. Conversely let and pull back a putative cover along . Both generators become , so in . The allowed degeneracy criterion gives in , equivalently . ThusThis necessity argument never selects a prime ideal.
Finite intersections of the generating opens are again generators, so they form a basis. Assign to . The localization of a ring carries its ordinary addition and multiplication of fractions; equality of and means that some power of annihilates the cross-multiplied difference. On , restriction is further localization.
We also justify restriction for any inclusion of basic opens. Adding the condition to the presentation of gives the open and the presentation of : the generator for corresponds to . This is well-defined since equality of fractions, after multiplication by a power of the now-invertible , makes the two membership propositions equivalent. More explicitly, implies . If , this gives . If is killed by a power of , then (since ), and the additive inequalities for and give . A zero element in the localized ring has false membership, multiplication gives intersections, and the additive relation follows by clearing denominators. The reverse assignment on proves that these maps are inverse. Thus . If , then in this localized theory . Apply the quotient argument above, with the second generator , to conclude in . Therefore is invertible there, and the universal property of localization gives the restriction . These restrictions compose uniquely.
It remains to glue, and the allowed basis criterion reduces this to a whole-locale cover . Let and have equal restrictions to . Choose a common initial exponent , writing , . Equality on the overlap supplies withSet , and . Thenwith the last equality in itself. This clearing step is necessary when the commutative ring has zero divisors.
Since , also . Choose . For , expand ; each term contains either or , producing with . For choose . DefineIn ,and similarly in ,Thus glues the matching pair. If is another gluing, some and annihilate . The same binomial argument gives , so . This proves uniqueness without cancellation or a domain assumption.
The exactness of the unit-ideal localization Čech complex proves the sheaf axiom for the required basic covers, and hence the assignment with its restrictions defines a sheaf of rings with . On the empty basic open, localization is the zero ring, whose underlying set has one section, as required. The construction and proof remain valid for the zero ring.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 23 5 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For the covariant category in this part, put and . Its global-sections functor is , the limit of the diagram. If is also an inverse image, it is a left adjoint and preserves all small colimits.
Consider the canonical pointwise-surjective mapAt , the summand contains , so is an epimorphism. In a presheaf topos epimorphisms are regular, and a colimit-preserving functor preserves their coequalizer presentations. Thus is surjective. Since preserves coproducts, some summand has a global element, yielding a section of its unique map . The constant singleton functor is a retract of a covariant representable.
Conversely, if is such a retract in a category, is a retract of , which is evaluation at by the Yoneda lemma. Evaluation preserves colimits pointwise. The colimit comparison for a retract functor is a retract of the evaluation comparison; a retract of an isomorphism is an isomorphism, so preserves all small colimits. It also preserves finite limits because it is representable. A right adjoint can be constructed byFor , precomposition gives , and applying and then gives . The presentation of every functor as a colimit of representables gives . Hence , so is an inverse image and the topos is local.
The retract condition has a precise interpretation as the initial object criterion for a covariant local topos. Write the section as a natural family . Naturality says for every . Put . Then and every satisfies . In the idempotent completion of , the object is initial: an arrow from it to must satisfy , and the identities force ; this arrow exists because and .
Conversely an initial object in the idempotent completion gives that natural family and the retract. ThereforeIf is already idempotent-complete, this is equivalent to an initial object in itself, and is evaluation there. The word is initial, not terminal, because this question uses covariant functors.
One cannot omit idempotent completion for a general small category. Take the one-object category of the monoid with absorbing zero. It has no initial object because its endomorphism set has two elements, but the natural family satisfies for every . Its covariant functor category is local. Concretely, a functor is a set with an idempotent operator, and its global sections are the fixed points of that operator.
For a topological space , there is an equally explicit criterion. If is local, apply to the epimorphism associated with any open cover , regarding the opens as subterminal sheaves. Since is a singleton exactly when , and otherwise empty, coproduct and epimorphism preservation force some .
Thus every open cover of contains itself. Conversely this open cover criterion for a local sheaf topos condition is equivalent to existence of a point whose only open neighborhood is : the union of all proper open sets cannot be all of , so choose outside it. Such a point plainly forces any cover to contain . Empty spaces fail the condition.
At this point, the stalk functor is simply , since there is only one open neighborhood. Its right adjoint is the skyscraper sheaf of setsA morphism is determined exactly by its map , because all proper opens omit . Hence , and preserves finite limits, proving locality. ConsequentlyIn a space this distinguished point is unique and closed. In a space the condition forces to be a singleton. Indistinguishable points in a non- space can all have this property; uniqueness of an actual point is not part of the general criterion.
Subterminal sheaf 2026-10-07
In a sheaf topos on a topological space, subterminal sheaves correspond to open sets . Their sections over are a singleton if and empty otherwise. An open cover gives a jointly epimorphic family of these subobjects. The open cover criterion for a local sheaf topos follows by applying a colimit-preserving global-sections functor to that family.