On the standard charts of projective space, wedge the coordinate differentials in increasing order. The change and gives the displayed Jacobian determinant. Multiplying the th local generator by removes this sign and yields the transition functions of the twisting sheaf on projective space with degree .
On the standard two-affine cover of the projective line, with coordinate , a frame for the twisting sheaf on projective space on the second chart equals times the frame on the first. Its Čech cochain complex is , with map . The kernel has basis for . The cokernel has basis for . The two-chart complex also proves vanishing in degrees at least two.
Cohomology of twisting sheaves on projective space Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
For every integer , the cohomology of a twisting sheaf on projective space is
Thus all intermediate cohomology vanishes. The top line follows from Serre duality and .
For , a twisting sheaf on projective space has when , and top cohomology with basis the Laurent monomials of total degree whose exponents are all negative. All intermediate sheaf cohomology vanishes. Their dimensions are and respectively, with the top group nonzero only for . Decompose the standard Čech cochain complex by exponent vector: no negative exponents gives a simplex with cohomology in degree zero; a nonempty proper negative-support set admits a contracting homotopy inserting a vertex outside that set; all negative exponents give only the top term. For , every twist is trivial on and has .
Let be a finite affine open cover of the projective scheme . For a coherent sheaf , form the Čech cochain complex
The two ways to omit any pair of indices have opposite signs, giving . Its cohomology groups are
A projective scheme over a field is a separated scheme. Finite intersections of its affine opens are affine, and a coherent sheaf is quasi-coherent. Higher sheaf cohomology of a quasi-coherent sheaf on an affine scheme vanishes. Thus this is an acyclic cover and the acyclic cover theorem identifies the displayed Čech cohomology with . In particular its degree-zero kernel glues compatible local sections to . A cover by opens also gives vanishing for .
For the cohomology of twists on projective space, take with the usual grading and . On an intersection indexed by the nonempty set ,
This follows directly from the construction of the twisting sheaf on projective space: sections of the twist are the degree- homogeneous fractions in the corresponding localization. The Čech differential preserves each Laurent monomial , where and . Such a monomial appears precisely in summands with
The complex therefore decomposes as the direct sum of finite-dimensional cochain complexes indexed by these exponent vectors. Their differentials have only the alternating signs of the simplex incidence maps.
If , this is the ordinary unaugmented simplex cochain complex: its degree-zero kernel consists of the common value on every vertex and has dimension one, while all higher cohomology vanishes. If , choose . A cochain homotopy inserting into the ordered index list, with the sign of that insertion, contracts this subcomplex. Insertion or deletion of preserves the condition ; in , terms inserting and deleting different vertices cancel in pairs, while the term inserting then deleting is the identity. Thus this entire monomial subcomplex is acyclic. Finally, if all , the monomial occurs only in the full intersection, in degree , and contributes one copy of there.
For , these three cases give the complete answer:
In the first case counting nonnegative exponent vectors gives . In the top case write with ; then , giving
This is the Laurent-monomial description of top cohomology on projective space. All intermediate degrees vanish for every twist, and the top degree vanishes when . If , then and every twist is trivial, so for every integer , with all higher groups zero.
Use homogeneous coordinates . Multiplication by these degree-one sections defines the sheaf morphism
On , write , with , and let be the standard vector in component using the local line bundle frame of . Then , so is surjective since . Its kernel is a locally free sheaf with basis
Indeed any vector in the kernel is uniquely a sum of these vectors, by solving for its -th component.
The Kähler differential sheaf has basis on , since this chart is a polynomial affine scheme. Define the local map . To check that these isomorphisms glue, on put and . Then
The twisting sheaf on projective space frame changes by , hence
For , use , and ; the same formula applies. Thus the differential and kernel frames have identical transition matrices. We obtain the cotangent form of the Euler sequence:
This construction works over any field, including positive characteristic.
The Kähler differential sheaf has rank . Taking determinant line bundles in this locally split short exact sequence of sheaves gives
The left side is the tensor product of copies of , and . Consequently
It is the canonical bundle of projective space. The determinant identity can also be seen directly by taking the wedge of the kernel basis followed by a lift of the quotient basis; changing that lift by a kernel vector leaves the wedge unchanged.
Choose a nonconstant element of the function field . By Question 1 it gives a finite morphism . The inverse images and are affine, because the inverse image of an affine under a finite morphism is the spectrum of a finite algebra over its coordinate ring. They cover . This proves the two-affine cover of a smooth projective curve assertion.
Their intersection is affine by Question 2. Thus the Čech cochain complex for any coherent sheaf has just two nonzero terms,
It follows that
On the projective line, put on the first chart. The twisting sheaf on projective space has frames and , with on the intersection; these are frame symbols also for negative . In the frame the differential of the Čech cochain complex is
A global section is therefore a Laurent polynomial in both and . Its monomials have exponents . For the sections have basis ; for there are none. The first sheaf cohomology is
Its basis consists of the monomials with . These are precisely the exponents missed by the two chart spaces. Thus for every integer ,
Both groups vanish at ; all higher groups vanish for every . This is also an explicit calculation of the Čech cohomology of twists on the projective line.
Let with its usual grading, and put . Define the twisting sheaf on projective space by
More explicitly, on its sections are the homogeneous degree- part of . They are a free rank-one module over , with generator . These generators make sense for every integer , since is invertible on this chart. Their transition rule is
The ratios are regular units on overlaps and satisfy the cocycle identity, so they glue to an invertible sheaf. In particular .
For , a global section is a compatible homogeneous degree- rational expression lying in every . Inside the fraction field of ,
To justify this, write a fraction in lowest terms in the unique factorization domain . Membership in forces every irreducible divisor of its denominator to be associated with . Since there are at least two nonassociated variables, the denominator must be a unit. Therefore
The degree- monomials are indexed by nonnegative integers with sum . The stars and bars count gives
Here and below, an all-integer binomial shorthand must use the counting convention when , including negative . The polynomial extension of binomial coefficients to negative upper arguments does not give the stated dimensions. In dimension zero, is one point and every is trivial, so its space of global sections is for every ; this case is treated separately.
For a closed inclusion , direct image sheaf formation is exact: its stalk is the original stalk at a point of and zero outside . It preserves flabby sheaves, since restrictions on the target are restrictions between the corresponding open subsets of . Push forward a flasque resolution of ; exactness gives a flasque resolution of , and its complex of global sections is the original one because
Taking cohomology of these identical complexes proves sheaf cohomology under a closed inclusion:
This argument applies even without quasi-coherence.
We derive the remaining sheaf cohomology dimensions using the given eventual vanishing, the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology, and induction on dimension. Multiplication by the linear equation of a hyperplane gives the hyperplane exact sequence for twisting sheaves
Exactness can be checked in each chart by quotienting its polynomial ring by the equation of ; multiplication is injective because that equation is a non-zero-divisor. We use the closed-inclusion cohomology identification to replace the cohomology of the final sheaf by that on .
The dimension-zero base is a point, whose global-section functor is exact. Thus all its higher sheaf cohomology is zero. For , the relevant long exact sequence is
When , restriction of homogeneous polynomials to the hyperplane point is surjective: after choosing that point as , the section restricts to a generator. Therefore the consecutive groups are isomorphic for . The given vanishing for large propagates down to . For , both displayed groups are zero, and the sequence becomes
Starting with , induction downward gives for . For degrees , the point contributes no cohomology to the exact sequence, so consecutive groups are isomorphic for every ; the given eventual vanishing makes them all zero. Hence the complete positive-degree formula holds for .
Now let and assume the formulas for . For every , the restriction
is surjective: for extend a polynomial in the hyperplane coordinates to the same polynomial on , and for both groups vanish because has positive dimension. Consequently the exact sequence gives an injection
For , the induction hypothesis says , and gives the same injection in degree . For each fixed , composing finitely many injections reaches a sufficiently large twist, whose higher cohomology is zero by the given hypothesis. Therefore
For , the two neighbouring hyperplane groups and are zero by induction. Consecutive groups on are then isomorphic, and eventual vanishing again makes them zero. This derives vanishing above the dimension too, without needing a special projective-space cohomology theorem.
For top cohomology the exact sequence now reduces to
Write . The induction hypothesis and eventual vanishing give the recurrence
Consecutive top groups agree for , so descending from a large twist gives for . Below this range, iterating the recurrence gives a finite sum:
The last equality follows by summing Pascal's identity. These short exact sequences also prove that every group whose dimension is being counted is finite-dimensional. Thus, for ,
With the stated counting convention, the latter is the requested single binomial formula. The base has for all twists and no higher cohomology; it is not governed by the negative-twist rule for positive-dimensional projective space.
Finally calculate the canonical line bundle of a smooth variety from its transition functions. On write for . On , , take the coordinates in increasing order of . Thus
In their wedge product, and
. Every term involving a second vanishes, so reordering the remaining differentials gives
This computation is valid in every characteristic. Multiply the ordered local generator on by . The resulting generators satisfy on , and hence the corresponding transition rule on every overlap. They are exactly the transitions of . Therefore the canonical bundle of projective space is
For a line bundle, Serre duality states
The intermediate groups on both sides vanish. In the two outer degrees, the top group at twist has the same dimension as the global-section group at twist :
The polynomial degree on the right is nonnegative precisely when , and its dimension is . Interchanging and checks the other outer degree. On both sides are one-dimensional. Thus all the formulas are consistent with Serre duality, which was used only for this final consistency check, not to prove the cohomology formulas.
On the standard affine charts , use the formal frame and glue rank-one free sheaves by
The transition functions are regular units on overlaps and satisfy the cocycle identity. This constructs the twisting sheaf on projective space as an invertible sheaf for every integer , including negative .
On a nonempty , a section has local expressions , where . Pulling to the punctured affine cone gives . Their agreement on overlaps makes them one homogeneous rational function of degree , regular on . To make its polynomial representation explicit, write one nonzero local coefficient as in the affine coordinates. Homogenize to degrees ; the resulting rational expression is
If the exponent of is negative, move its power to the denominator. Cancel common factors; the greatest common divisor of homogeneous polynomials can be chosen homogeneous. Thus with coprime homogeneous polynomials, , and .
Conversely, for such a homogeneous rational function regular on , its coefficient is regular on : restrict to the slice . These coefficients obey the displayed transition rule and hence define a section. This proves the homogeneous rational sections of a twisting sheaf description in both directions, for arbitrary open rather than only a standard chart.
Now lift a regular degree-zero rational function to the punctured cone. The quotient rule gives
This is a rational function homogeneous of degree . It is independent of the chosen representation because differentiation is a derivation of the rational function field. It is regular wherever is regular: a derivation of a polynomial ring extends to each localization by the quotient rule, and regular functions are locally such fractions. The preceding homogeneous-section description therefore proves
Zeros of a particular displayed denominator do not invalidate this argument; regularity is a property of the rational function, which can have another local representation.
The map is a -linear sheaf derivation with values in . The universal property of Kähler differentials consequently defines
Multiplication by the coordinate section defines the other map
For a degree- homogeneous polynomial, differentiating each monomial gives . Applying this to the equal-degree numerator and denominator gives for degree-zero , so . This identity is valid in every characteristic.
To prove all the exactness assertions, fix and put for . The Kähler differential sheaf is free there on , because a derivation of the polynomial ring is determined freely by its values on the coordinates. Trivialize each with frame . In this frame,
where now denotes the th coordinate vector of the direct sum. The map is surjective, since its th coefficient is one. Its kernel consists exactly of tuples with , so the displayed vectors form a free basis of that kernel. The map sends the differential basis bijectively to this kernel basis and is therefore injective. Exactness on these charts proves the cotangent Euler sequence in homogeneous coordinates
The proof uses no division by an integer and hence no characteristic-zero assumption.
For , the cohomology of twisting sheaves on projective space gives
In particular, , , and for every . The long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology of the displayed Euler sequence begins
and gives zero in the remaining degrees. Thus
The nonzero group is generated by the connecting image of the section of . If is admitted, is a point and its cotangent sheaf is zero, so the sole requested group is zero.
Cover the projective line by and . On their overlap the coordinate is invertible. Choose frames of the twisting sheaf on projective space with . The vanishing of quasi-coherent cohomology on an affine scheme applies to both charts and their intersection, so the Čech cochain complex
computes the sheaf cohomology. Its kernel identifies with , and its cokernel is
For , the intersection has basis ; for it is zero. In the quotient, powers with or disappear. The surviving basis for is ; for none survives. Hence
This is the Čech cohomology of twists on the projective line.
By the preceding question, . In the frame its degree-one Čech cohomology is one-dimensional, represented by . Define
This is well defined: differentials regular on have nonnegative powers, and those regular on have powers at most when expressed using . Evaluation and the cup product give natural pairings
For with , the basis element in pairs with in and with no other element of this dual Laurent basis. The pairing matrix is a permutation matrix, hence invertible. For the same computation exchanges degrees zero and one. For both sides vanish. Thus the pairings are perfect for every line bundle on .
Here we used the classification of line bundles on the projective line: they are for integers . One direct justification is that every line bundle has a nonzero rational section and hence is associated with a divisor on an algebraic curve. The finite closed point defined by an irreducible polynomial is linearly equivalent to , using the principal divisor of . Thus every divisor is equivalent to its degree times , proving the classification over arbitrary .
To extend the pairing to every locally free coherent sheaf , induct on rank, without assuming the splitting theorem of the next question. A one-dimensional subspace of the generic fibre, saturated in , gives an exact sequence
with a line bundle and a lower-rank vector bundle. This saturated line subbundle on a smooth curve exists because its stalk and its torsion-free quotient are free over the discrete valuation rings of the curve. The dual sequence, tensored with , is exact as well, since the original sequence splits locally.
The two long exact sequences in sheaf cohomology, after dualizing one, are compatible with the evaluation pairings. In Čech cohomology, this compatibility follows by lifting a section locally: the differences of its lifts represent its connecting class, and contracting those differences with a dual cocycle gives the transpose connecting map, with the usual sign. Thus the connecting maps are adjoint; changing one vertical map's sign gives a commuting diagram. Its rows are
The maps for and are isomorphisms by the line-bundle calculation and induction. Exactness then makes the maps for isomorphisms, by the Five lemma (or by comparing the relevant kernels and cokernels). All groups are finite-dimensional because the curve is projective and the sheaves coherent. Therefore residue duality on the projective line proves
These isomorphisms are natural in . Higher sheaf cohomology vanishes by the same two-chart complex.
Take the projective line and the coherent sheaves and , where the latter is a twisting sheaf on projective space. Both are line bundles, so each stalk is a free rank-one -module and therefore at every point.
They are nevertheless not isomorphic. On the standard charts with coordinates and , choose frames of with . A global section would give polynomials and satisfying
The left side has only nonnegative powers of , and the right side only strictly negative powers. Thus both vanish, giving . For the structure sheaf, the corresponding equality is , whose solutions are precisely the constants. Hence
A morphism of sheaves which is an isomorphism on all stalks would be an isomorphism; this example only asserts the existence of separate stalk isomorphisms, not that they come from one morphism of sheaves.
Let be the structure map, a projective morphism. Let be the union of the two rational points and . The homogeneous polynomial defines this effective Cartier divisor and gives the exact sequence of coherent sheaves
The twisting sheaf on projective space has no nonzero global sections: the chart calculation of Question 3(iv) now requires , again impossible for nonzero polynomials. We also have and .
The direct image sheaf under is the module of global sections on the one-point scheme. Consequently the induced sequence is
Its last nonzero map has cokernel isomorphic to , since has the diagonal as its kernel. Thus the induced sequence is not exact at , proving that projective direct image need not preserve surjections.
Order the index set of the open cover . The Čech cochain groups are
and their differential is the alternating sum of restrictions:
Terms obtained by deleting two indices cancel in pairs, so . The Čech cohomology is , with zero incoming differential in degree zero. Its zeroth group is the group of global sections by sheaf gluing.
The acyclic cover theorem applies if every nonempty finite intersection is acyclic for . For a quasi-coherent sheaf on a variety it is sufficient that every such intersection is affine; on a separated variety, any affine open cover has this property. On , take the standard charts . Every intersection is a principal open in an affine chart, hence affine. The Čech complex has no terms above degree , proving
This is the cohomological dimension bound from an affine cover and requires only quasi-coherence, not finite generation.
For the remaining projective calculations assume . There is a necessary zero-dimensional exception to the negative-twist assertion: is a point, every twist is trivial there, and even for .
Put with its usual grading. The twisting sheaf on projective space is the sheaf associated with the shifted graded module ; on an intersection its sections are
On a generator is , with transition . These are regular units on overlaps and satisfy the cocycle relation, so they glue an invertible sheaf for every integer , including negative .
A global section is a compatible family of these homogeneous fractions, hence a single element of degree in . For , and are relatively prime in the unique factorization domain , so ; therefore the full intersection is . It follows that
For its dimension is . The proof uses all-chart compatibility; regularity on one chart alone would permit poles on its complement.
If some , the ideal contains , so the requested containment is immediate. Otherwise every . A monomial of degree must have for some : if not, its total degree would be at most . Thus every degree- monomial, and hence every homogeneous polynomial of that degree, belongs to . This is monomial containment in an ideal of coordinate powers.
For , a top-degree Čech cochain for is a degree-zero Laurent polynomial on the full intersection. Write it with a common denominator as
The containment just proved gives , with homogeneous of degree . Consequently
The th term is regular on the intersection omitting , and has degree zero. Give it the sign in that component of the preceding Čech cochain. Its coboundary is the original fraction. Every top cochain is thus a coboundary, and
This is top Čech cohomology from missing-denominator monomials.
To obtain the negative-twist bound by induction on dimension, let be a hyperplane, with inclusion . Its equation gives the hyperplane exact sequence for twisting sheaves
The associated long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology and sheaf cohomology under a closed inclusion give
For , restriction is the surjection . Exactness and the already proved give . The displayed surjections then give the same vanishing for every . This handles the point hyperplane without making a false negative-twist claim on .
For , the induction hypothesis in dimension gives whenever . Therefore consecutive top-degree groups are isomorphic for . Starting with and stepping down through reaches . Stepping upward proves all positive twists too. We conclude
This is top-twist vanishing by hyperplane induction.
Finally, on write and . On , let be the wedge of for , taken in increasing index order. For , differentiating and gives
In the wedge, all terms involving a second copy of disappear; the surviving powers are from and from the other differentials. Moving into its original position produces the stated sign. Rescale each local generator by . Then on every overlap, exactly the transition of the twist with . This canonical-form transition on projective space proves the canonical bundle of projective space:
For line bundles the Serre duality pairing becomes
In particular is dual to , which is zero for , precisely the independently obtained bound. The case recovers , and matches . Thus the calculated transition functions, global sections and top-degree vanishing agree with Serre duality.
Take the hyperplane divisor . On its local equation is , a non-zero-divisor; on it is the unit one. Thus it is an effective Cartier divisor. On overlaps, is a unit.
The divisor line bundle is locally generated by . Map this generator to the local generator of the twisting sheaf on projective space . On overlaps both generators transform by , so the maps glue and give
For the hyperplane is empty and this is the zero Cartier divisor; the conclusion still holds.
The resolution principle for sheaf cohomology states that an exact sequence
with for every computes as the cohomology of . In particular one may use a flasque resolution.
An affine morphism is one for which the inverse image of every affine open subset of is affine. We use vanishing of quasi-coherent cohomology on an affine scheme: a quasi-coherent sheaf has zero higher sheaf cohomology on an affine variety. Take a flasque resolution . Each direct image sheaf is flasque, because restriction on is restriction on . On an affine open , the augmented complex of sections is
Its positive-degree cohomology vanishes by the affine theorem, and its degree-zero kernel is . Checking exactness on this affine basis shows that is a flasque resolution of . The global-section complexes are identical, proving cohomology under an affine morphism:
For projective space, put with its usual grading and . Construct the twisting sheaf on projective space by setting its sections on to be the degree- part , viewed as a module over . It is free of rank one with generator , even when is negative. On overlaps the generators differ by the unit , so these modules glue to a line bundle .
Assume first . These local modules all embed in the graded fraction field, and agreement on overlaps identifies global sections with . Since is a unique factorization domain and at least two distinct variables occur, a reduced fraction belonging to every has no nonconstant denominator. Thus the intersection is . Counting monomials by stars and bars gives
Here . The printed formula needs the convention that a counting binomial coefficient is zero when its upper integer is smaller than its nonnegative lower integer; the generalized polynomial convention for negative upper integers would give incorrect dimensions. For , every twist on the single point is trivial, so for every and its higher cohomology is zero. This case supplies the base of dimension induction; the displayed top-cohomology formula below is for .
The standard affine opens have affine finite intersections. The acyclic cover theorem and affine vanishing identify sheaf cohomology with a Čech cochain complex ending in degree . In particular for .
Let , with inclusion . Multiplication by gives the hyperplane exact sequence for twisting sheaves
Exactness is checked in the local trivializations, where a hyperplane equation is a non-zero-divisor and the quotient is its restriction to . Since a closed immersion is an affine morphism, the first part identifies the cohomology of with that on .
For , the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology and give
Starting from the given vanishing for sufficiently large and descending gives for and for .
Now let , and assume the formulas in dimension . Restriction
is surjective for every : for it is polynomial restriction, and for both groups are zero since . The long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology therefore makes injective. For , dimension induction gives , so the same sequence makes
injective. Composing these injections up to a sufficiently large twist, where the target is zero by the given hypothesis, proves for every and .
The remaining part of the long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology is consequently
where the last zero uses the affine-cover dimension bound on . Hence . Using dimension induction and eventual vanishing, downward summation yields
by telescoping Pascal's identity; for it is zero. Thus, without invoking Serre duality in the induction,
Finally, the canonical bundle of projective space is , obtained by taking determinants in the dual Euler sequence. Serre duality therefore predicts
It pairs the two computed extreme-degree dimensions and pairs zero intermediate groups with zero intermediate groups, exactly as required.
The tautological bundle over Complex projective space has fibre over equal to the line . Define and the twisting sheaf on projective space, viewed analytically as a holomorphic line bundle, by
For , use coordinates and . The tautological frames and differ by , so frames for satisfy . A global holomorphic section is therefore described by entire functions with
Write . Holomorphicity of at zero permits only the powers with . For , this says is a polynomial of degree at most ; for , every coefficient must vanish. Equivalently, when the sections are homogeneous polynomials of degree in . Thus
Tensor the sequence from part (i) with the twisting sheaf on projective space :
Its long exact sequence in cohomology contains
Since , we have , and the final group is intermediate cohomology of projective space. It vanishes by the cohomology of twisting sheaves on projective space. Hence
For an open cover and a sheaf , the Čech cochain complex is
with the alternating sum of restriction maps as differential. Its cohomology is the Čech cohomology .
Cover by and , and write . This is an acyclic affine cover for the twisting sheaf on projective space . In compatible trivializations, its degree-one Čech quotient is
The first summand contains every nonnegative power of and the second every negative power, so
On the standard charts and of , a section of the twisting sheaf on projective space is represented by a degree-zero element of the corresponding localization of . A global section is therefore a homogeneous polynomial of degree when . There are no nonzero global sections for . Hence
Local isomorphism on every member of a fixed affine cover does not imply a global isomorphism: the local identifications may have different transition functions. For example, and are both trivial on the two standard affine charts of , but they are not isomorphic because their spaces of global sections have dimensions one and two.
An injective map between line bundles need not be an isomorphism. Multiplication by a nonzero section gives
on ; its cokernel is a nonzero skyscraper sheaf supported at the zero of the section.
Twisting sheaf on Proj 2026-10-06
With the graded shift convention , this is the sheaf associated with a graded module . Under the degree-one generation condition for Proj, it is an invertible sheaf: on with , multiplication by freely generates its local module for every integer . Without that hypothesis, it need not be invertible. The twisting sheaf on projective space is the standard special case. Stacks Project, Section 27.10 records the hypotheses and local trivializations.