Projective bundle

The projective bundle of a vector bundle

Every vector bundle over a variety X gives a projective bundle by taking the projective spaces of the fibers, but not all projective bundles arise in this way: there is an obstruction in the cohomology group H²(X,O*). In particular, if X is a compact Riemann surface, the obstruction vanishes i.e. H²(X,O*)=0.

The projective bundle of a vector bundle E is the same thing as the Grassmann bundle G 1 ( E ) of 1-planes in E.

The projective bundle P(E) of a vector bundle E is characterized by the universal property that says:

Given a morphism f: T → X, to factorize f through the projection map p: P(E) → X is to specify a line subbundle of f^*E.

For example, taking f to be p, one gets the line subbundle O(-1) of p^*E, called the tautological line bundle on P(E). Moreover, this O(-1) is a universal bundle in the sense that when a line bundle L gives a factorization f = p ∘ g, L is the pullback of O(-1) along g. See also Cone#O(1) for a more explicit construction of O(-1).

Let E ⊂ F be vector bundles (locally free sheaves of finite rank) on X and G = F/E. Let q: P(F) → X be the projection. Then the natural map O(-1) → q^*F → q^*G is a global section of the sheaf hom Hom(O(-1), q^*G) = q^* G ⊗ O(1). Moreover, this natural map vanishes at a point exactly when the point is a line in a fiber of E; in other words, the zero-locus of this section is P(E).

A particularly useful instance of this construction is when F is the direct sum E ⊕ 1 of E and the trivial line bundle (i.e., the structure sheaf). Then P(E) is a hyperplane in P(E ⊕ 1), called the hyperplane at infinity, and the complement of P(E) can be identified with E. In this way, P(E ⊕ 1) is referred to as the projective completion (or "compactification") of E.

The projective bundle P(E) is stable under twisting E by a line bundle; precisely, given a line bundle L, there is the natural isomorphism:

g : P ( E ) → ∼ P ( E ⊗ L )

such that g ∗ ( O ( − 1 ) ) ≃ O ( − 1 ) ⊗ p ∗ L . (In fact, one gets g by the universal property applied to the line bundle on the right.)

Cohomology ring and Chow group

Let X be a complex smooth projective variety and E a complex vector bundle of rank r on it. Let p: P(E) → X be the projective bundle of E. Then the cohomology ring H^*(P(E)) is an algebra over H^*(X) through the pullback p^*. Then the first Chern class ζ = c₁(O(1)) generates H^*(P(E)) with the relation

ζ r + c 1 ( E ) ζ r − 1 + ⋯ + c r ( E ) = 0

where c_i(E) is the i-th Chern class of E. One interesting feature of this description is that one can define Chern classes as the coefficients in the relation; this is the approach taken by Grothendieck.

Over fields other than the complex field, the same description remains true with Chow ring in place of cohomology ring (still assuming X is smooth). In particular, for Chow groups, there is the direct sum decomposition

A k ( P ( E ) ) = ⨁ i = 0 r − 1 ζ i A k − r + 1 + i ( X ) .

As it turned out, this decomposition remains valid even if X is not smooth nor projective. In contrast, A_k(E) = A_k-r(X), via the Gysin homomorphism, morally because that the fibers of E, the vector spaces, are contractible.