Cohomology of colimit is limit of cohomology ? (group cohomology)

group-cohomologyhomology-cohomologyhomotopy-theorylimits-colimits

In Homotopy theoretic methods in group cohomology, Henn's part, section 1.2, the example following definition 1 has the following sentence

"the cohomology $H^*(G,\mathbb{F}_p)$ of a group $G$, which is the colimit of a sequence of homomorphisms $G_n\to G_{n+1}$, is the limit $\varprojlim_n H^*(G_n,\mathbb{F}_p)$"

However, that doesn't seem clear to me, even in the nicest cases.

Indeed, let's say that all groups involved are discrete to simplify things, and, still to simplify, assume each morphism $G_n\to G_{n+1}$ is injective. Then it's pretty clear that $BG = \mathrm{colim} BG_n$ (since everything is discrete, we may look at $BG$ as $|NG|$ where $N$ is the nerve, then $|-|$ preserves colimits, and we may check by hand that $N$ preserves this special case of colimit), and that $BG_n\to BG_{n+1}$ is the inclusion of a subcomplex (again, I'm using $BK = |NK|$), hence we have the Milnor exact sequence $$0\to \varprojlim^1 H^{i-1}(G_n,\mathbb{F}_p) \to H^i(G,\mathbb{F}_p) \to \varprojlim H^i(G_n,\mathbb{F}_p)$$ (one can also derive this sequence algebraically from a $G$-projective resolution of $\mathbb{F}_p$, noting that under our hypotheses it is also $G_n$ projective for all $n$, and that $\hom_G(P_\bullet, M) = \varprojlim \hom_{G_n}(P_\bullet, M)$)

So even with all these nice hypotheses the statement I quoted would mean that $\varprojlim^1 H^{i-1}(G_n,\mathbb{F}_p) = 0$, but that's a bit unreasonable to expect, isn't it ? Morally, the induced maps $H^{i-1}(G_n,\mathbb{F}_p)\to H^{i-1}(G_k, \mathbb{F}_p), k\leq n$ could have bigger and bigger images.

So are there some unstated assumptions behind the quoted claim ? Or is it true in full generality ? If it is, how can one prove it ?

Best Answer

This follows from the fact that cohomology (with coefficients in a field) is dual to homology. Note first that $H_*(G,\mathbb{F}_p)$ always is the colimit of the $H_*(G_n,\mathbb{F}_p)$ (homology always preserves homotopy colimits). But the dual of a colimit is just the limit of the duals (this is immediate from the universal property of the colimit). So, taking duals of homology, we conclude that $H^*(G,\mathbb{F}_p)$ is the limit of the $H^*(G_n,\mathbb{F}_p)$.

As mentioned in the comments, it is not true with integer coefficients: $\mathbb{Q}$ is the colimit of $G_n=\frac{1}{n!}\mathbb{Z}$ but $H^2(\mathbb{Q},\mathbb{Z})$ is nontrivial while $H^2(G_n,\mathbb{Z})$ is trivial for all $n$. The proof above fails for integer coefficients since cohomology is no longer simply the dual of homology (and indeed, the nontriviality of $H^2(\mathbb{Q},\mathbb{Z})$ comes from the Ext term in the universal coefficient theorem).

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