sheafication of a sheaf

In the preceding subsection, we have not been explained what “sheafication” really means. Here is the definition.

LEMMA 07.28   Let $\mathcal G$ be a presheaf on a topological space $X$. Then there exists a sheaf $\operatorname{sheaf}(\mathcal G)$ and a presheaf morphism

$\displaystyle \iota_{\mathcal G}:\mathcal G \to \operatorname{sheaf}(\mathcal G)
$

such that the following property holds.
  1. If there is another sheaf $\mathcal F$ with a presheaf morphism

    $\displaystyle \alpha:\mathcal G \to \mathcal F,
$

    then there exists a unique sheaf homomorphism

    $\displaystyle \tilde{\alpha}: \operatorname{sheaf}(\mathcal G) \to \mathcal F
$

    such that

    $\displaystyle \alpha=\tilde{\alpha}\circ \iota_{\mathcal G}
$

    holds.

Furthermore, such $\operatorname{sheaf}(\mathcal G), \iota_{\mathcal G}$ is unique.

DEFINITION 07.29   The sheaf $\operatorname{sheaf}(\mathcal G)$ (together with $\iota_{\mathcal G}$) is called the sheafication of $\mathcal G$.

The proof of Lemma 7.28 is divided in steps.

The first step is to know the uniqueness of such sheafication. It is most easily done by using universality arguments. ([#!Lang1!#] has a short explanation on this topic.)

Then we divide the sheafication process in two steps.

LEMMA 07.30 (First step of sheafication)   Let $\mathcal G$ be a presheaf on a topological space $X$. Then for each open set $U\subset X$, we may define a equivalence relation on $\mathcal G(U)$ by

\begin{equation*}
f \sim g \iff
\left(
\begin{aligned}
&\text{there exists an o...
...ambda,U}g$ } \\
&\text{for any $\lambda$.}
\end{aligned}\right)
\end{equation*}

Then we define

$\displaystyle \mathcal G^{(1)}(U)=\mathcal G(U)/\sim.
$

Then $\mathcal G^{(1)}$ is a presheaf that satisfies the locality axiom of a sheaf. There is also a presheaf homomorphism from $\mathcal G$ to $\mathcal G^{(1)}$. Furthermore, $\mathcal G^{(1)}$ is universal among such.

LEMMA 07.31 (Second step of sheafication)   Let $\mathcal G$ be a presheaf on a topological space $X$ which satisfies the locality axiom of a sheaf. Then we define a presheaf $\mathcal G^{(2)}$ in the following manner. First for any open covering $\{U_\lambda\}$ of an open set $U\subset X$, we define

\begin{equation*}
\mathcal G^{(2)}(U; \{U_\lambda\})
=\left\{
\{r_\lambda \} \in...
...&\text{for any $\lambda, \mu\in \Lambda$.}
\end{aligned}\right\}
\end{equation*}

Then we define

$\displaystyle \mathcal G^{(2)}(U)=
\varinjlim_{\{U_\lambda\}}
\mathcal G^{(2)}(U; \{U_\lambda\})
$

Then we may see that $G^{(2)}$ is a sheaf and that there exists a homomorphism from $G$ to $G^{(2)}$. Furthermore, $G^{(2)}$ is universal among such.

Proofs of the above two lemma are routine work and are left to the reader.

Finish of the proof of Lemma 7.28: We put

$\displaystyle \operatorname{sheaf}(\mathcal G)=((\mathcal G)^{(1)})^{(2)}
$

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