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Sheaf total quotient rings
Definition
Let be a scheme. For each open , put These are the regular sections of on . Equivalently, their germs are nonzerodivisors in the sense that multiplication by each germ is injective. Restriction preserves this property, and the product of two such sections has the property because the corresponding multiplication map is a composite of injective maps. The identity section belongs to , so is a multiplicative subset of . Define the presheaf of rings with restrictions induced by those of . The sheaf of meromorphic functions, also called the sheaf of total quotient rings, is the sheafification The canonical localization maps give a morphism of presheaves of rings ; composing with the sheafification map gives a morphism of sheaves of rings . A meromorphic function on is a global section of .
If is integral, let be its generic point and set Then is canonically isomorphic to the constant sheaf .
Facts & Assumptions
Given: A scheme , and, for the final three proof steps, the additional hypothesis that is integral.
A nonzerodivisor is an element whose multiplication map is injective; the nonzerodivisors form the multiplicative set used to define a total ring of fractions (total ring of fractions).
A localization identifies exactly when for some denominator (Multiplicative subsets and the localisation as equivalence classes of fractions).
Sheaf locality makes sections equal when they agree on an open cover; the empty-cover axiom gives a unique section over (A sheaf on a topological space).
A point is generic for a closed subset when (Generic points of irreducible closed subsets).
An integral scheme is nonempty and irreducible, and every nonempty affine open has a domain as its coordinate ring (Integral schemes).
Every point of a scheme has an affine open neighborhood (Schemes); an affine scheme is a spectrum with its structure sheaf (Affine schemes and their coordinate rings).
In , the basic opens are (The underlying space of an affine spectrum).
Every local ring is nonzero (A local ring is a nonzero commutative ring with a unique maximal ideal).
For a prime , is the localization at (Localisation at a prime ideal: ).
The stalk of the affine structure sheaf at is (The stalk of the affine structure sheaf at a prime is A_p).
The canonical map is an isomorphism (Global functions on Spec A recover A).
For a domain , is its localization at (The field of fractions of an integral domain).
The canonical map from a domain to its fraction field is injective ( is a field and embeds the integral domain ).
A stalk is the filtered colimit over neighborhoods, so a germ is zero exactly when its representative vanishes on some smaller neighborhood (The stalk of a presheaf at a point).
Sheafification preserves stalks (Sheafification preserves stalks).
A morphism from a presheaf to a sheaf extends uniquely across the sheafification map (Sheafification is left adjoint to the inclusion of sheaves into presheaves).
A ring map taking all denominators to units extends uniquely to the localization (Universal property of localisation: maps that invert factor uniquely through ).
For an integral scheme and any set , the constant sheaf with value is the sheaf of locally constant -valued functions and has stalk at every point (Integral schemes, A sheaf on a topological space, A presheaf on a topological space, Sheafification of a presheaf, The stalk of a presheaf at a point, Sheafification preserves stalks, Sheafification is left adjoint to the inclusion of sheaves into presheaves, A morphism of sheaves is an isomorphism exactly when it is an isomorphism on every stalk). Indeed, every nonempty open subset of an irreducible space is irreducible. Each locally constant function on such an open is constant: if two values occur, one nonempty fiber and the union of the other fibers are disjoint nonempty open subsets covering that irreducible open. Thus the locally constant-function assignment has value on every nonempty open and a singleton on the empty open. It is a sheaf: in a cover of a nonempty open, any two nonempty members intersect, so compatible constant values agree and give a unique constant function; the empty open has its unique section. Every stalk is , since all neighborhoods are nonempty and the restrictions on these constant values are identities. The constant presheaf with value maps to this sheaf by constant functions, and its stalk is also at every point. By the sheafification universal property, this map extends to a map from its sheafification to the locally constant-function sheaf; stalk preservation makes the map bijective on every stalk. The stalkwise isomorphism criterion identifies that sheafification with the locally constant-function sheaf. For , pointwise operations make this an isomorphism of sheaves of rings.
A morphism of sheaves is an isomorphism when it is a bijection on every stalk (A morphism of sheaves is an isomorphism exactly when it is an isomorphism on every stalk).
Proof
The sets are multiplicative and restriction-compatible. Restriction preserves injectivity of multiplication at each retained stalk. At each stalk, multiplication by a product is the composite of the two multiplication maps; multiplication by is the identity. Therefore the localizations form the stated presheaf .
Every localization map is injective. If and , then multiplication by gives for every . A germ is zero exactly when the section vanishes on some neighborhood, so vanishes locally everywhere and is zero by sheaf locality. The localization criterion in [F2] now gives the injectivity.
An integral scheme has a unique generic point. Choose a nonempty affine open . The ring is a domain. Every nonempty open of contains a basic open containing some prime; then and . Thus is dense in . Since is dense in irreducible , the closure of this point in is , giving a generic point . Any generic point belongs to every nonempty open, so . If corresponds to a nonzero prime , choose . The nonempty open contains and omits , contradicting density of . Hence is unique. In particular every nonempty open of contains .
The sheaf map is injective on stalks and sections. If a germ represented by maps to zero in , then after shrinking to a neighborhood its image is zero in . Step 1.2 gives , so is injective. Sheafification preserves stalks, so the map to is injective on every stalk. A section in its kernel has zero germ at every point, vanishes on a cover, and is zero by locality.
Each nonempty affine chart has . Let be any nonempty affine chart. Choose the affine chart used in step 1.3. Its generic prime is , so [F9, F10, F12] give , a field. By step 1.3, ; let be its prime in . Then is a field. If , a nonzero element of stays nonzero in this localization because is a domain, so the maximal ideal is nonzero, impossible for a field. Hence and [F9, F10, F12] give . If in the domain , then in each : otherwise some would satisfy . Thus all nonzero elements of act injectively on every stalk in . The zero element does not act injectively, since these stalks are nonzero local rings. Consequently and .
Generic evaluation embeds and identifies . For nonempty , cover it by affine opens . If a section maps to zero at , its restriction to each is zero because embeds in its fraction field. Locality makes the section zero. A nonzero section cannot have zero germ at any point: that would make it zero on a nonempty neighborhood, which contains by step 1.3. Its germs are therefore nonzero in the domain stalks: on an affine neighborhood those stalks are localizations of a domain by [F9, F10], so they act injectively. Conversely, the zero section fails the injectivity condition at every point of nonempty .
Generic evaluation sheafifies to a map . For nonempty , step 3.1 puts every denominator in at a nonzero element of , so the localization universal property gives a ring map . Send each fraction to the constant locally constant function with that value. For , the sheaf empty cover axiom gives ; hence , and use the unique ring map between these zero rings. The maps commute with restrictions, including restriction to , so they define a presheaf map . The sheafification universal property extends it to the stated map.
The resulting map is an isomorphism on stalks. Affine opens form a basis: inside an affine neighborhood, the basic opens refine any given neighborhood. On each nonempty affine open , step 2.2 identifies with the canonical fraction-field isomorphism. These affine neighborhoods are cofinal at every point, so the map induces a bijection on every stalk. The target stalk is by the constant-sheaf description, and the source stalk agrees with that of by sheafification. The stalkwise isomorphism criterion completes the proof. Both sheaves have their unique empty-open section by the sheaf empty-cover axiom. Integrality is used only for the constant-function-field identification above.
Depends on
Schemes
Affine schemes and their coordinate rings
The underlying space of an affine spectrum
The stalk of a presheaf at a point
Multiplicative subsets and the localisation as equivalence classes of fractions
Localisation at a prime ideal:
A local ring is a nonzero commutative ring with a unique maximal ideal
total ring of fractions
A sheaf on a topological space
A presheaf on a topological space
Sheafification of a presheaf
Generic points of irreducible closed subsets
Integral schemes
The field of fractions of an integral domain
Global functions on Spec A recover A
Sheafification is left adjoint to the inclusion of sheaves into presheaves
Sheafification preserves stalks
A morphism of sheaves is an isomorphism exactly when it is an isomorphism on every stalk
The stalk of the affine structure sheaf at a prime is A_p
is a field and embeds the integral domain
Universal property of localisation: maps that invert factor uniquely through