Spectral sequences can be constructed by various ways. In algebraic topology, an exact couple is perhaps the most common tool for the construction. In algebraic geometry, spectral sequences are usually constructed from filtrations of cochain complexes.
Spectral sequence of an exact couple Another technique for constructing spectral sequences is
William Massey's method of exact couples. Exact couples are particularly common in algebraic topology. Despite this they are unpopular in
abstract algebra, where most spectral sequences come from filtered complexes. To define exact couples, we begin again with an abelian category. As before, in practice this is usually the category of doubly graded modules over a ring. An
exact couple is a pair of objects (
A,
C), together with three homomorphisms between these objects:
f :
A →
A,
g :
A →
C and
h :
C →
A subject to certain exactness conditions: •
Image f =
Kernel g • Image
g = Kernel
h • Image
h = Kernel
f We will abbreviate this data by (
A,
C,
f,
g,
h). Exact couples are usually depicted as triangles. We will see that
C corresponds to the
E0 term of the spectral sequence and that
A is some auxiliary data. To pass to the next sheet of the spectral sequence, we will form the
derived couple. We set: •
d =
g o
h •
A' =
f(
A) •
C' = Ker
d / Im
d •
f ' =
f|
A', the restriction of
f to
A' •
h' :
C' →
A' is induced by
h. It is straightforward to see that
h induces such a map. •
g' :
A' →
C' is defined on elements as follows: For each
a in
A', write
a as
f(
b) for some
b in
A.
g'(
a) is defined to be the image of
g(
b) in
C'. In general,
g' can be constructed using one of the embedding theorems for abelian categories. From here it is straightforward to check that (
A',
C',
f ',
g',
h') is an exact couple.
C' corresponds to the
E1 term of the spectral sequence. We can iterate this procedure to get exact couples (
A(
n),
C(
n),
f(
n),
g(
n),
h(
n)). In order to construct a spectral sequence, let
En be
C(
n) and
dn be
g(
n) o
h(
n).
Spectral sequences constructed with this method •
Serre spectral sequence - used to compute (co)homology of a fibration •
Atiyah–Hirzebruch spectral sequence - used to compute (co)homology of extraordinary cohomology theories, such as
K-theory •
Bockstein spectral sequence. • Spectral sequences of filtered complexes
The spectral sequence of a filtered complex A very common type of spectral sequence comes from a
filtered cochain complex, as it naturally induces a bigraded object. Consider a cochain complex (C^{\bullet}, d) together with a descending filtration, ... \supset\, F^{-2}C^{\bullet} \,\supset\, F^{-1}C^{\bullet} \supset F^{0}C^{\bullet} \,\supset\, F^{1}C^{\bullet} \,\supset\, F^{2}C^{\bullet} \,\supset\, F^{3}C^{\bullet} \,\supset... \, . We require that the boundary map is compatible with the filtration, i.e. d(F^pC^n) \subset F^pC^{n+1}, and that the filtration is
exhaustive, that is, the union of the set of all F^pC^{\bullet} is the entire chain complex C^{\bullet}. Then there exists a spectral sequence with E_0^{p,q} = F^{p}C^{p+q}/F^{p+1}C^{p+q} and E_1^{p,q} = H^{p+q}(F^{p}C^{\bullet}/F^{p+1}C^{\bullet}) . Later, we will also assume that the filtration is
Hausdorff or
separated, that is, the intersection of the set of all F^pC^{\bullet} is zero. The filtration is useful because it gives a measure of nearness to zero: As
p increases, F^pC^{\bullet} gets closer and closer to zero. We will construct a spectral sequence from this filtration where coboundaries and cocycles in later sheets get closer and closer to coboundaries and cocycles in the original complex. This spectral sequence is doubly graded by the filtration degree
p and the complementary degree .
Construction C^{\bullet} has only a single grading and a filtration, so we first construct a doubly graded object for the first page of the spectral sequence. To get the second grading, we will take the associated graded object with respect to the filtration. We will write it in an unusual way which will be justified at the E_1 step: :Z_{-1}^{p,q} = Z_0^{p,q} = F^p C^{p+q} :B_0^{p,q} = 0 :E_0^{p,q} = \frac{Z_0^{p,q}}{B_0^{p,q} + Z_{-1}^{p+1,q-1}} = \frac{F^p C^{p+q}}{F^{p+1} C^{p+q}} :E_0 = \bigoplus_{p,q\in\mathbf{Z}} E_0^{p,q} Since we assumed that the boundary map was compatible with the filtration, E_0 is a doubly graded object and there is a natural doubly graded boundary map d_0 on E_0 . To get E_1 , we take the homology of E_0 . :\bar{Z}_1^{p,q} = \ker d_0^{p,q} : E_0^{p,q} \rightarrow E_0^{p,q+1} = \ker d_0^{p,q} : F^p C^{p+q}/F^{p+1} C^{p+q} \rightarrow F^p C^{p+q+1}/F^{p+1} C^{p+q+1} :\bar{B}_1^{p,q} = \mbox{im } d_0^{p,q-1} : E_0^{p,q-1} \rightarrow E_0^{p,q} = \mbox{im } d_0^{p,q-1} : F^p C^{p+q-1}/F^{p+1} C^{p+q-1} \rightarrow F^p C^{p+q}/F^{p+1} C^{p+q} :E_1^{p,q} = \frac{\bar{Z}_1^{p,q}}{\bar{B}_1^{p,q}} = \frac{\ker d_0^{p,q} : E_0^{p,q} \rightarrow E_0^{p,q+1}}{\mbox{im } d_0^{p,q-1} : E_0^{p,q-1} \rightarrow E_0^{p,q}} :E_1 = \bigoplus_{p,q\in\mathbf{Z}} E_1^{p,q} = \bigoplus_{p,q\in\mathbf{Z}} \frac{\bar{Z}_1^{p,q}}{\bar{B}_1^{p,q}} Notice that \bar{Z}_1^{p,q} and \bar{B}_1^{p,q} can be written as the images in E_0^{p,q} of :Z_1^{p,q} = \ker d_0^{p,q} : F^p C^{p+q} \rightarrow C^{p+q+1}/F^{p+1} C^{p+q+1} :B_1^{p,q} = (\mbox{im } d_0^{p,q-1} : F^p C^{p+q-1} \rightarrow C^{p+q}) \cap F^p C^{p+q} and that we then have :E_1^{p,q} = \frac{Z_1^{p,q}}{B_1^{p,q} + Z_0^{p+1,q-1}}. Z_1^{p,q} are exactly the elements which the differential pushes up one level in the filtration, and B_1^{p,q} are exactly the image of the elements which the differential pushes up zero levels in the filtration. This suggests that we should choose Z_r^{p,q} to be the elements which the differential pushes up
r levels in the filtration and B_r^{p,q} to be image of the elements which the differential pushes up
r-1 levels in the filtration. In other words, the spectral sequence should satisfy :Z_r^{p,q} = \ker d_0^{p,q} : F^p C^{p+q} \rightarrow C^{p+q+1}/F^{p+r} C^{p+q+1} :B_r^{p,q} = (\mbox{im } d_0^{p-r+1,q+r-2} : F^{p-r+1} C^{p+q-1} \rightarrow C^{p+q}) \cap F^p C^{p+q} :E_r^{p,q} = \frac{Z_r^{p,q}}{B_r^{p,q} + Z_{r-1}^{p+1,q-1}} and we should have the relationship :B_r^{p,q} = d_0^{p,q}(Z_{r-1}^{p-r+1,q+r-2}). For this to make sense, we must find a differential d_r on each E_r and verify that it leads to homology isomorphic to E_{r+1} . The differential :d_r^{p,q} : E_r^{p,q} \rightarrow E_r^{p+r,q-r+1} is defined by restricting the original differential d defined on C^{p+q} to the subobject Z_r^{p,q}. It is straightforward to check that the homology of E_r with respect to this differential is E_{r+1} , so this gives a spectral sequence. Unfortunately, the differential is not very explicit. Determining differentials or finding ways to work around them is one of the main challenges to successfully applying a spectral sequence.
Spectral sequences constructed with this method •
Hodge–de Rham spectral sequence • Spectral sequence of a double complex • Can be used to construct Mixed Hodge structures
The spectral sequence of a double complex Another common spectral sequence is the spectral sequence of a double complex. A
double complex is a collection of objects
Ci,j for all integers
i and
j together with two differentials, and . is assumed to decrease
i, and is assumed to decrease
j. Furthermore, we assume that the differentials
anticommute, so that
d d +
d d = 0. Our goal is to compare the iterated homologies H^\textrm{I}_i(H^\textrm{II}_j(C_{\bullet,\bullet})) and H^\textrm{II}_j(H^\textrm{I}_i(C_{\bullet,\bullet})). We will do this by filtering our double complex in two different ways. Here are our filtrations: :(C_{i,j}^\textrm{I})_p = \begin{cases} 0 & \text{if } i :(C_{i,j}^\textrm{II})_p = \begin{cases} 0 & \text{if } j To get a spectral sequence, we will reduce to the previous example. We define the
total complex T(
C•,•) to be the complex whose th term is \bigoplus_{i+j=n} C_{i,j} and whose differential is + . This is a complex because and are anticommuting differentials. The two filtrations on
Ci,j give two filtrations on the total complex: :T_n(C_{\bullet,\bullet})^\textrm{I}_p = \bigoplus_{i+j=n \atop i > p-1} C_{i,j} :T_n(C_{\bullet,\bullet})^\textrm{II}_p = \bigoplus_{i+j=n \atop j > p-1} C_{i,j} To show that these spectral sequences give information about the iterated homologies, we will work out the
E,
E, and
E terms of the filtration on
T(
C•,•). The
E term is clear: :{}^\textrm{I}E^0_{p,q} = T_n(C_{\bullet,\bullet})^\textrm{I}_p / T_n(C_{\bullet,\bullet})^\textrm{I}_{p+1} = \bigoplus_{i+j=n \atop i > p-1} C_{i,j} \Big/ \bigoplus_{i+j=n \atop i > p} C_{i,j} = C_{p,q}, where . To find the
E term, we need to determine + on
E. Notice that the differential must have degree −1 with respect to
n, so we get a map :d^\textrm{I}_{p,q} + d^\textrm{II}_{p,q} : T_n(C_{\bullet,\bullet})^\textrm{I}_p / T_n(C_{\bullet,\bullet})^\textrm{I}_{p+1} = C_{p,q} \rightarrow T_{n-1}(C_{\bullet,\bullet})^\textrm{I}_p / T_{n-1}(C_{\bullet,\bullet})^\textrm{I}_{p+1} = C_{p,q-1} Consequently, the differential on
E is the map
Cp,
q →
Cp,
q−1 induced by + . But has the wrong degree to induce such a map, so must be zero on
E. That means the differential is exactly , so we get :{}^\textrm{I}E^1_{p,q} = H^\textrm{II}_q(C_{p,\bullet}). To find
E, we need to determine :d^\textrm{I}_{p,q} + d^\textrm{II}_{p,q} : H^\textrm{II}_q(C_{p,\bullet}) \rightarrow H^\textrm{II}_q(C_{p+1,\bullet}) Because
E was exactly the homology with respect to , is zero on
E. Consequently, we get :{}^\textrm{I}E^2_{p,q} = H^\textrm{I}_p(H^\textrm{II}_q(C_{\bullet,\bullet})). Using the other filtration gives us a different spectral sequence with a similar
E term: :{}^\textrm{II}E^2_{p,q} = H^\textrm{II}_q(H^{I}_p(C_{\bullet,\bullet})). What remains is to find a relationship between these two spectral sequences. It will turn out that as
r increases, the two sequences will become similar enough to allow useful comparisons. == Convergence, degeneration, and abutment ==