Derived category of sheaves 2026-10-14
The derived category of sheaves is formed by localizing cochain complexes of sheaves at quasi-isomorphisms, equivalently localizing their homotopy category. The bounded, bounded below and bounded above variants are denoted , and . Cohomology sheaves are invariant under quasi-isomorphism and therefore define functors on these categories. Constructible bounded complexes form a natural subcategory on which Verdier duality reverses arrows and, under the usual finiteness hypotheses, is an involution.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 22 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
All cohomology below has rational coefficients. First describe the incidence space geometrically. The image of is , inside . For a line , choosing a plane containing is equivalent to choosing the line in . If is the tautological line bundle on , thenThis is the projective bundle of a rank-three quotient bundle, with fibre . Local frames of the quotient bundle give local product charts. In particular is an oriented real six-dimensional manifold.
For , the intersection is exactly a line, so is a single point and the inverse map is . The intersection line varies continuously, indeed holomorphically, wherever its dimension is constant: in local Grassmannian charts it is the kernel of a matrix of constant rank, whose kernel bases can be chosen locally. Thus is an isomorphism over the open stratum. At the remaining point,Set , a derived direct image of sheaves. The proper base change for sheaves theorem identifies its derived stalks with the cohomology complexes of the fibres. Consequently is the constant rational sheaf in degree zero on , andThe cohomology sheaves are therefore finite-rank local systems on the two strata, with no other nonzero degrees. This proves that is a constructible complex of sheaves and verifies normalization. The open stratum has real dimension six, so the isolated point has codimension six. Its middle perversity is , and the intersection-complex support and cosupport axioms require stalk vanishing in degrees above two. The fibre calculation verifies the support axiom, as well as vanishing in negative degrees.
For an oriented real six-dimensional manifold, Verdier duality gives . For a proper map, Verdier duality commutes with derived direct image. Applying these statements here yieldsThe duality identity converts this intoHere is the costalk, and dualization of rational complexes reverses degrees. Thus its only nonzero groups are in degrees four and six. In particular they vanish for , which is precisely the cosupport axiom at this isolated six-dimensional singularity. The uniqueness characterization by constructibility, normalization, support and cosupport now identifies with the unshifted intersection complex of . Taking hypercohomology, and using the composition of derived global sections with , givesFinally apply the fibration result allowed in the question to . Its base is the simply connected complex projective line, its fibre is the Complex projective plane, and the projective-bundle charts above verify the fibration hypothesis. Hence, as graded rational vector spaces,The resulting Betti numbers and Poincaré polynomial areThis uses with . No assertion that an arbitrary projective fibration has the product cohomology ring is needed.
Verdier duality 2026-10-14
On bounded constructible complexes over locally compact stratified spaces, Verdier duality is , where is the dualizing complex. For an oriented real -manifold, . Proper direct image commutes with this duality, and . These properties exchange stalk support conditions with costalk conditions.