I am having problems calculating the cohomology with compact support of the open Möbius strip (without the bounding edge).
I am using the Mayer Vietoris sequence: U and V are two open subsets diffeomorphic to $\mathbb{R}^2$ and $U\cap V$ is diffeomorphic to two copies of $\mathbb{R}^2$.
$H^0_C(M)=0$ and that's ok, but then I get the exact sequence
$ 0 \rightarrow H^1_C(M) \rightarrow H^2_C(U\cap V) \rightarrow H^2_C(U)\oplus H^2_C(V) \rightarrow H^2_C(M)\rightarrow 0$
where both $H^2_C(U\cap V)$ and $H^2_C(U)\oplus H^2_C(V)$ have dimension 2.
I would say that the function $\delta:H^2_C(U\cap V) \rightarrow H^2_C(U)\oplus H^2_C(V)$ in the exact sequence sends $(\phi,\psi)$ to $(-j_U(\phi + \psi),j_V(\phi + \psi))$ where $\phi$ and $\psi$ are generators of $H^2_C(U\cap V)$.
So I would say that $Im\ \delta$ is one dimensional and spanned by $(-j_U(\phi + \psi),j_V(\phi + \psi))$ and $\dim H^1_C(M)=\dim H^2_C(M)=1$. But, I have read that all compact cohomology classes of the Möbius strip are zero. So I must be wrong somewhere.
Best Answer
Jim's comment is right, the glueing information is hidden in the map $\mathbb R^2 \to \mathbb R^2$ corresponding to the map $\phi : H^2_c(U\cap V) \to H^2_c(U) \oplus H^2_c(V)$.
Recall that if $U$ and $V$ are opens of $\mathbb R^2$, if we have a map $\iota : \mathbb U \to \mathbb V$, it induces a map $\iota^* : \Omega^2_c(\mathbb U) \to \Omega^2_c(\mathbb V)$, such that $\iota^* (f dxdy) = g dxdy$ where $g$ satisfies $f = (g \circ \iota) * J$ where $J$ is the jacobian of $\iota$, and $g=0$ outside the image of $\iota$. Consequently, depending on the (non-changing) sign of $J$, we have $\int_U \omega = \pm \int_V (\iota^*(\omega))$ forall $\omega \in \Omega^2_c(U)$ (the change of variable formula is exactly what we have, but with an absolute value on the jacobian). Therefore you have to keep track wether all your inclusion maps preserve orientation or not.
Write $U \cap V = W = W_1 \cup W_2$, so that $H^2_c(U\cap V) = H^2_c(W_1) \oplus H^2_c(W_2)$. We know that $U,V,W_1,W_2$ are diffeomorphic to $\mathbb R^2$, so the isomorphisms are induced by $\alpha : \omega \in \Omega^2_c(U) \mapsto \int_U \omega$
$\phi$ is given by $\phi(\omega_1 \oplus \omega_2) = (\iota_{W_1 \to U}^*(\omega_1) - \iota_{W_2 \to U}^*(\omega_2), \iota_{W_1 \to V}^*(\omega_1) - \iota_{W_2 \to V}^*(\omega_2))$. So $\alpha \circ \phi (\omega_1 \oplus \omega_2) = (\int_U \iota_{W_1 \to U}^*(\omega_1) - \int_U \iota_{W_2 \to U}^*(\omega_2), \int_V \iota_{W_1 \to V}^*(\omega_1) - \int_V \iota_{W_2 \to V}^*(\omega_2))$.
In the Möbius case, we usually pick maps such that $\iota_{W_1 \to U},\iota_{W_2 \to U},\iota_{W_1 \to V}$ are orientation preserving, and $\iota_{W_2 \to V}$ is orientation-reversing, so we obtain : $\alpha \circ \phi (\omega_1 \oplus \omega_2) = (\int_{W_1} \omega_1 + \int_{W_2} \omega_2, \int_{W_1} \omega_1 - \int_{W_2} \omega_2)$ thus the corresponding map $\tilde{\phi} : \mathbb R^2 \to \mathbb R^2$ is $(x,y) \mapsto (x+y,x-y)$, which is an isomorphism. Therefore, its kernel and cokernel, $H^1_c(M)$ and $H^2_c(M)$, are both zero.