§ Elementary uses of Sheaves in complex analysis
I always wanted to see sheaves in the wild in a setting that was both
elementary but 'correct': In that, it's not some perverse example
created to show sheaves (DaTaBaSeS arE ShEAvEs). Ahlfors has a great example
of this which I'm condensing here for future reference.
§ Sheafs: Trial 1
- We have function elements (f:Ω→C,Ω⊆C). f is complex analytic, Ω is an open subset of C.
- Two function elements (f1,Ω1),(f2,Ω2) are said to be analytic continuations of each other iff Ω1∩Ω2=∅, and f1=f2 on the set Ω1∩Ω2).
- (f2,Ω2) can be called as the continuation of (f1,Ω1) to region Ω2.
- We will have that the analytic continuation of f1 to Ω2 is unique. If there exists a function element (g2,Ω2), (h2,Ω2) such that g2=f1=h2 in the region Ω1∩Ω2, then by analyticity, this agreement will extend to all of Ω2.
- Analytic continuation is therefore an equivalence relation (prove this!)
- A chain of analytic continuations is a sequence of (fi,Ωi) such that the adjacent elements of this sequence are analytic continuations of each other. (fi,Ωi) analytically continues (fi+1,Ωi+1).
- Every equivalence class of this equivalence relation is called as a global analytic function. Put differently, it's a family of function elements (f,U) and (g,V) such that we can start from (f,U) and build analytic continuations to get to (g,V).
§ Sheafs: Trial 2
- We can take a different view, with (f,z∈C) such that fis analytic at some open set Ω which contains z. So we should picture an f sitting analytically on some open set Ω which contains z.
- Two pairs (f,z), (f′,z′) are considered equivalent if z=z′ and f=f′ is some neighbourhood of z(=z′).
- This is clearly an equivalence relation. The equivalence classes are called as germs .
- Each germ (f,z) has a unique projection z. We denote a germ of f with projection zas fz.
- A function element (f,Ω) gives rise to germs (f,z) for each z∈Ω.
- Conversely, every germ (f,z) is determined by some function element (f,Ω)since we needed f to be analytic around some open neighbourhood of z: Call this neighbourhood Ω.
- Let D⊆C be an open set. The set of all germs {fz:z∈D}is called as a sheaf over D. If we are considering analytic f then this will be known as the sheaf of germs of analytic functions over D. This sheaf will be denoted as Sh(D).
- There is a projection π:Sh(D)→D;(f,z)↦z. For a fixed z0∈D, the inverse-image π−1(z0) is called as the stalk over z0. It is denoted by Sh(z).
- Sh carries both topological and algebraic structure. We can give the sheaf a topology to talk about about continuous mappings in and out of Sh. It also carries a pointwise algebraic structure at each stalk: we can add and subtract functions at each stalk; This makes it an abelain group.
§ Sheaf: Trial 3
A sheaf over D is a topological space Sh and a mapping π:Sh→D
with the properties:
- π is a local homeomorphism. Each s∈S has an open neighbourhood Dsuch that π(D) is open, and the restriction of π to D is a homeomorphism.
- For each point z∈D, the stalk π−1(z)≡Sz has the structre of an abelian group.
- The group operations are continuous with respect to the topology of Sh.
We will pick D to be an open set in the complex plane; Really, D can
be arbitrary.
§ Germs of analytic functions satisfy (Sheaf: Trial 3)