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89 votes
5 answers
18k views

What is sheaf cohomology intuitively?

What is sheaf cohomology intuitively? For local systems it is ordinary cohomology with twisted coefficients. But what if the sheaf in question is far from being constant? Can one still understand ...
Jan Weidner's user avatar
  • 13.2k
16 votes
4 answers
2k views

Coboundaries and Gluing in Cech Cohomology - Intuition?

I'm trying to develop an intuition for Cech cohomology geometrically, but am currently failing. A lot of people seem to say that the groups $H^n$ measure obstructions to gluing local sections to get ...
Edward Hughes's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
1k views

How is a Stack the generalisation of a sheaf from a 2-category point of view?

A stack is usually given in terms of: -A category $F$ fibered over another $C$ such that the functor $Hom(x,y), x,y \in F(\alpha), \alpha \in C$ is a sheaf -The descent data are effective. There ...
HaroldF's user avatar
  • 433
13 votes
1 answer
583 views

Which nice/deep elaborations on the (operators <-> sheaves) / (endomorphisms <-> objects) theme are there?

A linear operator $T:V\to V$ on a (say) vector space over a field $k$ is just a $k[T]$-module, and may be viewed as the sheaf $\mathscr F_T$ over $\mathbb A^1_k$, with fibre over $\lambda\in k$ equal ...
მამუკა ჯიბლაძე's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
6k views

Serre's FAC versus Hartshorne as an introduction to sheaves in algebraic geometry

I just found an English translation of Serre's FAC at Richard Borcherds' Algebraic Geometry course web page. I really want to read it sometime. I am beginner in Algebraic Geometry, just started ...
7 votes
0 answers
574 views

What is the geometric intuition for the sheaf-theoretic terms "soft", "fine", and "flabby"?

The sheaf-theoretic terms "soft", "flabby", and "fine" are of an obviously geometric character, and suggest opposition with "hard", "rigid", and "coarse" sheaves (I'm just inventing these terms here). ...
ಠ_ಠ's user avatar
  • 6,025
6 votes
0 answers
322 views

What's the point of fine sheaves? (As opposed to soft ones)

Why do people care to define fine sheaves? What useful property do they have for which softness is not sufficient? some observations (because I feel guilty about a the one-line question): The point ...
Carlos Esparza's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
6k views

Is Bredon's Topology a sufficient prelude to Bredon's Sheaf Theory?

I intend to try working through Bredon's seminal sheaf theory text prior to graduating (I am currently a second year undergraduate), but it is at a level which is far beyond my own (friends of mine ...
lambdafunctor's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
186 views

The site and the space

There is a (seemingly simple) statement in the literature on sheaf theory, namely, If $E$ is the site of opens of a topological space $X$, the notion of sheaf over $X$ coincides with that of sheaf of ...
user234212323's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
776 views

Mathematical background required to learn about sheaves

Due to my interest in type theory (and higher type theory), I have found that learning about sheaves might be useful (for, e.g., sheaf models of type theories). There is Kashiwara and Schapira's ...
xuq01's user avatar
  • 1,094
2 votes
0 answers
253 views

Is there something interesting in the uniqueness condition for a sheaf?

After digesting the Presheaf definition by the very first time, one feels (at least I felt) a strange sensation noticing the existence and uniqueness conditions to graduate that Presheaf as a sheaf, ...
Luis Felipe's user avatar