Ext^ZZ(CoherentSheaf,CoherentSheaf) -- global Ext

The global Ext module $\operatorname{Ext}^i_X (\mathcal F, \mathcal G)$ is a vector space, defined as the $i$th right derived functor of the global Hom functor $\operatorname{Hom}_X (\mathcal{F}, -)$. The elements of the $i$th global Ext functor represent extensions of the sheaf $\mathcal{F}$ by $\mathcal{G}$; that is, exact sequences of sheaves of the form $$0 \to \mathcal{G} \to \mathcal{C}_i \to \mathcal{C}_{i-1} \to \cdots \to \mathcal{C}_1 \to \mathcal{F} \to 0.$$ These representatives can be accessed using the --put in yonedaSheafExt command

Of course, in Macaulay2 these vector spaces are not computed using injective resolutions of sheaves. Instead, a result of Greg Smith is used that shows that if $\mathca{F}$ and $\mathcal{G}$ are sheaves represented by modules $M$ and $N$, respectively, then there exists an integer $d$ (depending on $M$, $N$, and $i$) such that $$\operatorname{Ext}^i_X (\mathcal F, \mathcal G) = \operatorname{Ext}^i_S (M_{\geq d} , N)_0,$$ where in the above $S$ is some polynomial ring over a field, $M_{\geq d}$ denotes truncation, and $(-)_0$ denotes the degree $0$ part of a graded module. Moreover, the modules $M$ and $N$ are being viewed as modules over the polynomial ring $S$ via restriction of scalars along the canonical surjection $S \to R$, where $X = \operatorname{Proj} (R)$.

If F or G is a sheaf of rings, it is regarded as a sheaf of modules in the evident way.

Both F and S must be coherent sheaves on the same projective variety or scheme $X$.

As an example, we compute $\mathrm{Hom}_X(\mathcal I_X,\mathcalO_X)$ and $\mathrm{Ext}^1_X(\mathcal I_X,\mathcal O_X)$, for the rational quartic curve in $\PP^3$.

The $\mathrm{Ext}^1$ being zero says that the point corresponding to $I$ on the Hilbert scheme is smooth (unobstructed), and vector space dimension of $\mathrm{Hom}$ tells us that the dimension of the component at the point $I$ is 16.

The algorithm used may be found in:

If the module $\bigoplus_{a\geq 0} \mathrm{Ext}^i(M, N(a))$ is desired, see Ext^ZZ(CoherentSheaf,SumOfTwists).