In mathematics, given an
action
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
of a
group scheme
In mathematics, a group scheme is a type of object from algebraic geometry equipped with a composition law. Group schemes arise naturally as symmetries of schemes, and they generalize algebraic groups, in the sense that all algebraic groups have ...
''G'' on a scheme ''X'' over a base scheme ''S'', an equivariant sheaf ''F'' on ''X'' is a sheaf of
-modules together with the isomorphism of
-modules
:
that satisfies the cocycle condition: writing ''m'' for multiplication,
:
.
Notes on the definition
On the stalk level, the cocycle condition says that the isomorphism
is the same as the composition
; i.e., the associativity of the group action. The condition that the unit of the group acts as the identity is also a consequence: apply
to both sides to get
and so
is the identity.
Note that
is an additional data; it is "a lift" of the action of ''G'' on ''X'' to the sheaf ''F''. Moreover, when ''G'' is a connected algebraic group, ''F'' an invertible sheaf and ''X'' is reduced, the cocycle condition is automatic: any isomorphism
automatically satisfies the cocycle condition (this fact is noted at the end of the proof of Ch. 1, § 3., Proposition 1.5. of Mumford's "geometric invariant theory.")
If the action of ''G'' is free, then the notion of an equivariant sheaf simplifies to a sheaf on the quotient ''X''/''G'', because of the
descent along torsors In mathematics, given a ''G''-torsor ''X'' → ''Y'' and a stack ''F'', the descent along torsors says there is a canonical equivalence between ''F''(''Y''), the category of ''Y''-points and ''F''(''X'')''G'', the category of ''G''-equivariant ''X' ...
.
By
Yoneda's lemma
In mathematics, the Yoneda lemma is arguably the most important result in category theory. It is an abstract result on functors of the type ''morphisms into a fixed object''. It is a vast generalisation of Cayley's theorem from group theory (viewi ...
, to give the structure of an equivariant sheaf to an
-module ''F'' is the same as to give group homomorphisms for rings ''R'' over
,
:
.
There is also a definition of equivariant sheaves in terms of
simplicial sheaves. Alternatively, one can define an equivariant sheaf to be an
equivariant object
In mathematics, equivariance is a form of symmetry for functions from one space with symmetry to another (such as symmetric spaces). A function is said to be an equivariant map when its domain and codomain are acted on by the same symmetry group, ...
in the category of, say, coherent sheaves.
Linearized line bundles
A structure of an equivariant sheaf on an invertible sheaf or a line bundle is also called a linearization.
Let ''X'' be a complete variety over an algebraically closed field acted by a connected reductive group ''G'' and ''L'' an invertible sheaf on it. If ''X'' is normal, then some tensor power
of ''L'' is linearizable.
Also, if ''L'' is very ample and linearized, then there is a ''G''-linear closed immersion from ''X'' to
such that
is linearized and the linearlization on ''L'' is induced by that of
.
Tensor products and the inverses of linearized invertible sheaves are again linearized in the natural way. Thus, the isomorphism classes of the linearized invertible sheaves on a scheme ''X'' form an abelian group. There is a homomorphism to the Picard group of ''X'' which forgets the linearization; this homomorphism is neither injective nor surjective in general, and its kernel can be identified with the isomorphism classes of linearizations of the trivial line bundle.
See Example 2.16 o
for an example of a variety for which most line bundles are not linearizable.
Dual action on sections of equivariant sheaves
Given an algebraic group ''G'' and a ''G''-equivariant sheaf ''F'' on ''X'' over a field ''k'', let
be the space of global sections. It then admits the structure of a ''G''-module; i.e., ''V'' is a
linear representation
Representation theory is a branch of mathematics that studies abstract algebraic structures by ''representing'' their elements as linear transformations of vector spaces, and studies modules over these abstract algebraic structures. In essenc ...
of ''G'' as follows. Writing
for the group action, for each ''g'' in ''G'' and ''v'' in ''V'', let
:
where
and
is the isomorphism given by the equivariant-sheaf structure on ''F''. The cocycle condition then ensures that
is a group homomorphism (i.e.,
is a representation.)
Example: take
and
the action of ''G'' on itself. Then