Leray spectral sequence explained

In mathematics, the Leray spectral sequence was a pioneering example in homological algebra, introduced in 1946[1] [2] by Jean Leray. It is usually seen nowadays as a special case of the Grothendieck spectral sequence.

Definition

Let

f:X\toY

be a continuous map of topological spaces, which in particular gives a functor

f*

from sheaves of abelian groups on

X

to sheaves of abelian groups on

Y

. Composing this with the functor

\Gamma

of taking sections on

ShAb(Y)

is the same as taking sections on

ShAb(X)

, by the definition of the direct image functor

f*

:
ShAb

(X)\xrightarrow{f*}

ShAb(Y)

\xrightarrow{\Gamma}Ab.

Thus the derived functors of

\Gamma\circf*

compute the sheaf cohomology for

X

:

Ri(\Gamma

i(X,l{F}).
f
*)(l{F})=H

But because

f*

and

\Gamma

send injective objects in

ShAb(X)

to

\Gamma

-acyclic objects in

ShAb(Y)

, there is a spectral sequence[3] pg 33,19 whose second page is
p\Gamma
E
2=(R

Rq

p(Y,R
f
*)(l{F})=H
qf
*(l{F})),

and which converges to

Ep+q=Rp+q(\Gamma\circ

p+q
f
*)(l{F})=H

(X,l{F}).

This is called the Leray spectral sequence.

Generalizing to other sheaves and complexes of sheaves

Note this result can be generalized by instead considering sheaves of modules over a locally constant sheaf of rings

\underline{A}

for a fixed commutative ring

A

. Then, the sheaves will be sheaves of

\underline{A}

-modules, where for an open set

U\subsetX

, such a sheaf

l{F}\inSh\underline{A

}(X) is an

\underline{A}(U)

-module for

l{F}(U)

. In addition, instead of sheaves, we could consider complexes of sheaves bounded below

l{F}\bullet\in

+
D
\underline{A
}(X) for the derived category of

Sh\underline{A

}(X). Then, one replaces sheaf cohomology with sheaf hypercohomology.

Construction

The existence of the Leray spectral sequence is a direct application of the Grothendieck spectral sequencepg 19. This states that given additive functors

l{A}\xrightarrow{G}l{B}\xrightarrow{F}l{C}

between Abelian categories having enough injectives,

F

a left-exact functor, and

G

sending injective objects to

F

-acyclic objects, then there is an isomorphism of derived functors

R+(F\circG)\simeqR+F\circR+G

for the derived categories

D+(l{A}),D+(l{B}),D+(l{C})

. In the example above, we have the composition of derived functors
+(Sh
D
Ab(X))

\xrightarrow{Rf*}

+(Sh
D
Ab(Y))

\xrightarrow{\Gamma}D+(Ab).

Classical definition

Let

f\colonX\toY

be a continuous map of smooth manifolds. If

l{U}=\{Ui\}i

is an open cover of form the Čech complex of a sheaf

l{F}\inSh(X)

with respect to cover

f-1(U)

of

Cp(f-1l{U},l{F})

The boundary maps

dp\colonCp\toCp+1

and maps

\deltaq\colon

q
\Omega
X

\to

q+1
\Omega
X
of sheaves on

X

together give a boundary map on the double complex

Cp(f-1

q)
l{U},\Omega
X

D=d+\delta\colonC\bullet(f-1

\bullet)\longrightarrow
l{U},\Omega
X

C\bullet(f-1

\bullet)
l{U},\Omega
X

.

This double complex is also a single complex graded by with respect to which

D

is a boundary map. If each finite intersection of the

Ui

is diffeomorphic to one can show that the cohomology
n(
H
D

C\bullet(f-1

\bullet))
l{U},\Omega
X

=

n(X,\R)
H
dR

of this complex is the de Rham cohomology of [4] Moreover,[4] [5] any double complex has a spectral sequence E with

n-p,p
E
infty

=thepthgradedpartof

n
H
dR

(C\bullet(f-1

\bullet))
l{U},\Omega
X

(so that the sum of these is and

p,q
E
2

=Hp(f-1l{U},l{H}q),

where

l{H}q

is the presheaf on Y sending In this context, this is called the Leray spectral sequence.

The modern definition subsumes this, because the higher direct image functor

pf
R
*(F)
is the sheafification of the presheaf

Examples

X,F

be smooth manifolds, and

X

be simply connected, so

\pi1(X)=0

. We calculate the Leray spectral sequence of the projection

f\colonX x F\toX

. If the cover

l{U}=\{Ui\}i

is good (finite intersections are

\Rn

) then

l{H}p(f-1Ui)\simeqHq(F)

Since

X

is simply connected, any locally constant presheaf is constant, so this is the constant presheaf

Hq(F)=

nq
\underline{\R}
. So the second page of the Leray spectral sequence is
p,q
E
2

=Hp(f-1l{U},Hq(F))=Hp(f-1l{U},\R)Hq(F)

As the cover

\{f-1(Ui)\}i

of

X x F

is also good,

Hp(f-1(Ui);\R)\congHp(f;\R)

. So
p,q
E
2

=Hp(X)Hq(F)\LongrightarrowHp+q(X x F,\R)

Here is the first place we use that

f

is a projection and not just a fibre bundle: every element of

E2

is an actual closed differential form on all of

X x F

, so applying both d and

\delta

to them gives zero. Thus

Einfty=E2

. This proves the Künneth theorem for

X

simply connected:

H\bullet(X x Y,\R)\simeqH\bullet(X)H\bullet(Y)

f\colonX\toY

is a general fiber bundle with fibre

F

, the above applies, except that

Vp\toHp(f-1V,Hq)

is only a locally constant presheaf, not constant.

Degeneration theorem

In the category of quasi-projective varieties over

\Complex

, there is a degeneration theorem proved by Pierre Deligne and Blanchard for the Leray spectral sequence, which states that a smooth projective morphism of varieties

f\colonX\toY

gives us that the

E2

-page of the spectral sequence for

\underline{\Q}X

degenerates, hence

Hk(X;\Q)\congopluspHp

qf
(Y;R
*(\underline{\Q}

X)).

Easy examples can be computed if is simply connected; for example a complete intersection of dimension

\geq2

(this is because of the Hurewicz homomorphism and the Lefschetz hyperplane theorem). In this case the local systems
qf
R
*(\underline{\Q}

X)

will have trivial monodromy, hence
qf
R
*(\underline{\Q}

X)\cong

lq
\underline{\Q}
Y
. For example, consider a smooth family

f\colonX\toY

of genus 3 curves over a smooth K3 surface. Then, we have that
0f
\begin{align} R
*(\underline{\Q}

X)&\cong\underline{\Q}Y

1f
\\ R
*(\underline{\Q}

X)&\cong

⊕ 6
\underline{\Q}
Y
2f
\\ R
*(\underline{\Q}

X)&\cong\underline{\Q}Y \end{align}

giving us the

E2

-page

E2=Einfty=

0(Y;\underline{\Q}
\begin{bmatrix} H
Y)

&0&

2(Y;\underline{\Q}
H
Y)

&0&

4(Y;\underline{\Q}
H
Y)
⊕ 6
\\ H
Y

)&0&

⊕ 6
H
Y

)&0&

⊕ 6
H
Y

)

0(Y;\underline{\Q}
\\ H
Y)

&0&

2(Y;\underline{\Q}
H
Y)

&0&

4(Y;\underline{\Q}
H
Y) \end{bmatrix}

Example with monodromy

Another important example of a smooth projective family is the family associated to the elliptic curves

y2=x(x-1)(x-t)

over

P1\setminus\{0,1,infty\}

. Here the monodromy around and can be computed using Picard–Lefschetz theory, giving the monodromy around

infty

by composing local monodromies.

History and connection to other spectral sequences

At the time of Leray's work, neither of the two concepts involved (spectral sequence, sheaf cohomology) had reached anything like a definitive state. Therefore it is rarely the case that Leray's result is quoted in its original form. After much work, in the seminar of Henri Cartan in particular, the modern statement was obtained, though not the general Grothendieck spectral sequence.

Earlier (1948/9) the implications for fiber bundles were extracted in a form formally identical to that of the Serre spectral sequence, which makes no use of sheaves. This treatment, however, applied to Alexander–Spanier cohomology with compact supports, as applied to proper maps of locally compact Hausdorff spaces, as the derivation of the spectral sequence required a fine sheaf of real differential graded algebras on the total space, which was obtained by pulling back the de Rham complex along an embedding into a sphere. Jean-Pierre Serre, who needed a spectral sequence in homology that applied to path space fibrations, whose total spaces are almost never locally compact, thus was unable to use the original Leray spectral sequence and so derived a related spectral sequence whose cohomological variant agrees, for a compact fiber bundle on a well-behaved space with the sequence above.

In the formulation achieved by Alexander Grothendieck by about 1957, the Leray spectral sequence is the Grothendieck spectral sequence for the composition of two derived functors.

See also

References

  1. L'anneau d'homologie d'une représentation. . 1366–1368. 222 . 1946. Jean. Leray. Jean Leray.
  2. Leray in Oflag XVIIA : the origins of sheaf theory, sheaf cohomology, and spectral sequences, Jean Leray (1906–1998). Gaz. Math.. 17–34. 84. 2000. Haynes. Miller. Haynes Miller.
  3. Book: Dimca, Alexandru. Alexandru Dimca

    . Alexandru Dimca. Sheaves in Topology. 2004. Springer. Berlin, Heidelberg. 978-3-642-18868-8. 851731478. 10.1007/978-3-642-18868-8.

  4. Book: Bott. Raoul. Raoul Bott. Differential forms in algebraic topology. Tu. Loring W.. Graduate Texts in Mathematics. 82. 978-0-387-90613-3. Springer-Verlag. New York-Berlin. 7597142. 10.1007/978-1-4757-3951-0.
  5. Book: Griffiths. Phillip. Phillip Griffiths. Principles of algebraic geometry. 1978. Wiley. Harris. Joe. Joe Harris (mathematician). 0-471-32792-1. New York. 3843444. 443.

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