There are several ways to define Borel−Moore homology. They all coincide for reasonable spaces such as
manifolds and locally finite
CW complexes.
Definition via sheaf cohomology For any locally compact space
X, Borel–Moore homology with integral coefficients is defined as the cohomology of the dual of the
chain complex which computes
sheaf cohomology with compact support. As a result, there is a
short exact sequence analogous to the
universal coefficient theorem: 0 \to \text{Ext}^1_{\Z}(H^{i+1}_c(X,\Z),\Z) \to H_i^{BM}(X,\Z) \to \text{Hom}(H^i_c(X,\Z),\Z) \to 0. In what follows, the coefficients \Z are not written.
Definition via locally finite chains The
singular homology of a topological space
X is defined as the homology of the
chain complex of singular chains, that is, finite linear combinations of continuous maps from the simplex to
X. The Borel−Moore homology of a reasonable locally compact space
X, on the other hand, is isomorphic to the homology of the chain complex of
locally finite singular chains. Here "reasonable" means
X is locally contractible,
σ-compact, and of finite dimension. In more detail, let C_i^{BM}(X) be the abelian group of formal (infinite) sums u = \sum_{\sigma} a_{\sigma } \sigma, where
σ runs over the set of all continuous maps from the standard
i-simplex Δ
i to
X and each
aσ is an integer, such that for each compact subset
K of
X, we have a_\sigma\neq 0 for only finitely many
σ whose image meets
K. Then the usual definition of the boundary ∂ of a singular chain makes these abelian groups into a chain complex: \cdots \to C_2^{BM}(X) \to C_1^{BM}(X) \to C_0^{BM}(X) \to 0. The Borel−Moore homology groups H_i^{BM}(X) are the homology groups of this chain complex. That is, H^{BM}_i (X) = \ker \left (\partial : C_i^{BM}(X) \to C_{i-1}^{BM}(X) \right )/ \text{im} \left (\partial :C_{i+1}^{BM}(X) \to C_i^{BM}(X) \right ). If
X is compact, then every locally finite chain is in fact finite. So, given that
X is "reasonable" in the sense above, Borel−Moore homology H_i^{BM}(X) coincides with the usual singular homology H_i(X) for
X compact.
Definition via compactifications Suppose that
X is homeomorphic to the complement of a closed subcomplex
S in a finite CW complex
Y. Then Borel–Moore homology H_i^{BM}(X) is isomorphic to the
relative homology Hi(
Y,
S). Under the same assumption on
X, the
one-point compactification of
X is homeomorphic to a finite CW complex. As a result, Borel–Moore homology can be viewed as the relative homology of the one-point compactification with respect to the added point.
Definition via Poincaré duality Let
X be any locally compact space with a closed embedding into an oriented
manifold M of dimension
m. Then H^{BM}_i(X)= H^{m-i}(M,M\setminus X), where in the right hand side, relative
cohomology is meant.
Definition via the dualizing complex For any locally compact space
X of finite dimension, let be the
dualizing complex of . Then H^{BM}_i (X)=\mathbb{H}^{-i} (X, D_X), where in the right hand side,
hypercohomology is meant. ==Properties==