Lecture 14

56. Partitions of unity and cohomology.

Proposition 56.1. For any RS X we have H p (X, E) = 0 for p > 0.
Remark 56.2. The same result holds for the sheaves E (1) , E (1,0) , E (0,1) and E (2) .
The proof relies on the existence of a partition of unity, which is guaranteed by the following
Lemma 56.3. Let X be a smooth manifold (in particular Hausdorff and second countable).
Then for every open cover U = (Ui )i2I of X there exists a partition of unity subordinated to U ,
namely a family ( i )i2I of real-valued smooth functions i 2 E(Ui ) such that
(1) 0 6 i 6 1 and supp( i ) ⇢ Ui for all i 2 I,
(2) the family of supports (supp( i ))i2I is locally finite, namely every x 2 X has a neighbor-
hood
P U such that U \ supp( i ) is non-empty for only finitely many i 2 I,
(3) i2I i = 1.
For a proof see [L] Chapter 2.
Proof of Proposition for p = 1. It is sufficient to prove that H 1 (U , E) = 0 for any open covering
U of X. Let ( i )i2I a partition of unity subordinated to U and f = (fij )i,j2I 2 Z 1 (U , E). While
fij is defined
P on Ui \ Uj , the product j fij extends to a smooth function on Ui , so in particular
gi = j2I j fji belongs to E(Ui ) and g = (gi )i2I is a cochain in C 0 (U , E). Computing its
coboundary g we find
X
( g)ij = gj gi = k (fkj fki ) (56.1)
k2I

which, by the cocycle condition, is equal to

X
k fij = fij . (56.2)
k2I

⇤
Exercise 56.4. Use the following hint to generalise the p = 1 proof of the Proposition to the
case of p > 1: let f = (fi0 ,...,ip ) 2 Z p (U , E) and define the element g of C p 1 (U , E) by
X
gi0 ,...,ip 1 = ( 1)p j fi0 ,...,ip 1 ,j . (56.3)
j2I

Show that g = f .
57. Vanishing results for simply connected RS.
Theorem 57.1. For a simply connected RS X we have that
H 1 (X, C) = 0, H 1 (X, Z) = 0.
Proof. Let us prove the first statement. We have to show, for any cover U and any cocycle
c 2 Z 1 (U , C), that c splits, namely it is a coboundary c = g for g 2 C 0 (U , C). Clearly
c 2 Z 1 (U , E) and, since H 1 (U , E) = 0, we have that c = f for f 2 C 0 (U , E). So, we have that
cij = fj fi on Ui \ Uj , hence 0 = dcij = dfj dfi , therefore it exists ! 2 E (1) (X) such that
! = dfi on Ui . Clearly ! is closed, so it is exact on the simply connected RS X, i.e. ! = df for
f 2 E(X). Define the cochain g in C 0 (U , E) by gi = fi f . Since dgi = dfi df = 0 on Ui , the
cochain g is actually in C 0 (U , C), and clearly g = c. ⇤
Exercise 57.2. Prove that H 1 (X, Z) = 0 using similar steps as in the previous exercise. Hint:
instead of d(·) use the exp(2⇡i·).
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58. Leray theorem.
Theorem 58.1. Let F be a sheaf of abelian groups on the topological space X and U = (Ui )i2I
an open covering of X such that H 1 (Ui , F) = 0 for all i 2 I. Then
H 1 (X, F) ' H 1 (U , F). (58.1)
Proof. See [F] §12.8 ⇤
Remark 58.2. In the computation of the first Čech cohomology group of C⇤ with coefficients in
the sheaf Z given in §37 the open covering U satisfied the condition of the previous theorem,
therefore we can conclude that
Proposition 58.3. H 1 (C⇤ , Z) ' Z.
Exercise 58.4. Prove that H 1 (C \ {p1 , . . . , pn }, Z) ' Zn .
59. The skyscraper sheaf and the fundamental short exact sequence. See whiteboard
or [F] §16.7.
Exercise 59.1. Let D be a divisor on the RS X. Show that the stalks at Q 2 X of OD and
OD(Q)Q are identical.
Exercise 59.2. Let X be a Riemann surface, D a divisor on X, and P a point of X. Let z be a
local coordinate in a neighbourhood V of P with z(P ) = 0. For a neighbourhood U of P , let U
be the map that associates to a meromorphic function f in OD+P (U ) the coefficient of z k 1 in
its Laurent expansion at z ⇠ 0, where D(P ) = k. For U an open subset of X not containing P ,
let U be the zero map. Show that one has a short exact sequence of sheaves
◆
0 ! OD ! OD+P ! CP ! 0,
where ◆ denotes the inclusion of OD (U ) in OD+P (U ). Thanks to the previous exercise, it is
sufficient to check the exactness of the sequence of stalks at P .

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