Comparison theorem for projective resolutions
Statement
Let be an -module with two projective resolutions and . Then there exist chain maps and lifting the identity of , and any two such lifts are chain homotopic; in particular and are chain homotopy equivalent, so and computed from either resolution agree.
Why is it true?
Ext and Tor are defined by picking a projective resolution and applying a functor. This theorem is what makes that definition legitimate: it guarantees the answer never depends on which resolution you happened to pick, so and are honest invariants of the pair of modules, not artifacts of a choice.
Proof sketch
Step 1 (lifting the identity, degree by degree). Build inductively. For : since is projective and is surjective, the map lifts through to give . Inductively, assuming is built with (or the augmentation map for ), the composite lands in by exactness of the -resolution and commutativity so far, and since is projective this map lifts through the surjection to give with .
Step 2 (symmetric construction of ). The identical argument with the roles of and swapped produces lifting .
Step 3 (homotopy uniqueness). Suppose are two chain maps both lifting ; set , a chain map lifting . Construct a chain homotopy with inductively: for , composed with is (since lifts ), so factors through ; projectivity of lifts this factorization to with . Inductively, once is built, composed with vanishes by the inductive relation, so (by exactness of ) it factors through , and projectivity of lifts this to with , i.e. as required.
Step 4 (conclusion). Step 3 shows any two lifts of are chain homotopic, in particular and are both lifts of (via ), hence means , and symmetrically . This is exactly the definition of a chain homotopy equivalence, and since and send chain homotopic maps to chain homotopic maps, the resulting homology groups , computed from or are isomorphic.
Topics that use this theorem
Step-by-step proofs
No step-by-step proof yet for this theorem.
References
- Charles A. Weibel (1994). An Introduction to Homological Algebra
- Henri Cartan, Samuel Eilenberg (1956). Homological Algebra
- Alexander Grothendieck (1957). Sur quelques points d'algèbre homologique (the Tôhoku paper) · DOI:10.2748/tmj/1178244839
- Bhargav Bhatt, Akhil Mathew, Thomas Nikolaus (2019). Topological Cyclic Homology · arXiv:1802.03261