
Lemma 21.11.9. (Variant of Cohomology, Lemma 20.12.8.) Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a site. Let $\text{Cov}_\mathcal {C}$ be the set of coverings of $\mathcal{C}$ (see Sites, Definition 7.6.2). Let $\mathcal{B} \subset \mathop{\mathrm{Ob}}\nolimits (\mathcal{C})$, and $\text{Cov} \subset \text{Cov}_\mathcal {C}$ be subsets. Let $\mathcal{F}$ be an abelian sheaf on $\mathcal{C}$. Assume that

1. For every $\mathcal{U} \in \text{Cov}$, $\mathcal{U} = \{ U_ i \to U\} _{i \in I}$ we have $U, U_ i \in \mathcal{B}$ and every $U_{i_0} \times _ U \ldots \times _ U U_{i_ p} \in \mathcal{B}$.

2. For every $U \in \mathcal{B}$ the coverings of $U$ occurring in $\text{Cov}$ is a cofinal system of coverings of $U$.

3. For every $\mathcal{U} \in \text{Cov}$ we have $\check{H}^ p(\mathcal{U}, \mathcal{F}) = 0$ for all $p > 0$.

Then $H^ p(U, \mathcal{F}) = 0$ for all $p > 0$ and any $U \in \mathcal{B}$.

Proof. Let $\mathcal{F}$ and $\text{Cov}$ be as in the lemma. We will indicate this by saying “$\mathcal{F}$ has vanishing higher Čech cohomology for any $\mathcal{U} \in \text{Cov}$”. Choose an embedding $\mathcal{F} \to \mathcal{I}$ into an injective abelian sheaf. By Lemma 21.11.2 $\mathcal{I}$ has vanishing higher Čech cohomology for any $\mathcal{U} \in \text{Cov}$. Let $\mathcal{Q} = \mathcal{I}/\mathcal{F}$ so that we have a short exact sequence

$0 \to \mathcal{F} \to \mathcal{I} \to \mathcal{Q} \to 0.$

By Lemma 21.11.8 and our assumption (2) this sequence gives rise to an exact sequence

$0 \to \mathcal{F}(U) \to \mathcal{I}(U) \to \mathcal{Q}(U) \to 0.$

for every $U \in \mathcal{B}$. Hence for any $\mathcal{U} \in \text{Cov}$ we get a short exact sequence of Čech complexes

$0 \to \check{\mathcal{C}}^\bullet (\mathcal{U}, \mathcal{F}) \to \check{\mathcal{C}}^\bullet (\mathcal{U}, \mathcal{I}) \to \check{\mathcal{C}}^\bullet (\mathcal{U}, \mathcal{Q}) \to 0$

since each term in the Čech complex is made up out of a product of values over elements of $\mathcal{B}$ by assumption (1). In particular we have a long exact sequence of Čech cohomology groups for any covering $\mathcal{U} \in \text{Cov}$. This implies that $\mathcal{Q}$ is also an abelian sheaf with vanishing higher Čech cohomology for all $\mathcal{U} \in \text{Cov}$.

Next, we look at the long exact cohomology sequence

$\xymatrix{ 0 \ar[r] & H^0(U, \mathcal{F}) \ar[r] & H^0(U, \mathcal{I}) \ar[r] & H^0(U, \mathcal{Q}) \ar[lld] \\ & H^1(U, \mathcal{F}) \ar[r] & H^1(U, \mathcal{I}) \ar[r] & H^1(U, \mathcal{Q}) \ar[lld] \\ & \ldots & \ldots & \ldots \\ }$

for any $U \in \mathcal{B}$. Since $\mathcal{I}$ is injective we have $H^ n(U, \mathcal{I}) = 0$ for $n > 0$ (see Derived Categories, Lemma 13.20.4). By the above we see that $H^0(U, \mathcal{I}) \to H^0(U, \mathcal{Q})$ is surjective and hence $H^1(U, \mathcal{F}) = 0$. Since $\mathcal{F}$ was an arbitrary abelian sheaf with vanishing higher Čech cohomology for all $\mathcal{U} \in \text{Cov}$ we conclude that also $H^1(U, \mathcal{Q}) = 0$ since $\mathcal{Q}$ is another of these sheaves (see above). By the long exact sequence this in turn implies that $H^2(U, \mathcal{F}) = 0$. And so on and so forth. $\square$

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