Where is the cohomology with compact support useful? It seems that, a part from proving Poincaré duality, we also use it to compute the top dimensional cohomology group of closed manifolds: isn't singular cohomology sufficient here?
Thanks
Where is the cohomology with compact support useful? It seems that, a part from proving Poincaré duality, we also use it to compute the top dimensional cohomology group of closed manifolds: isn't singular cohomology sufficient here?
Thanks
For a closed manifold, cohomology and cohomology with compact supports coincide, but for open manifolds they do not. The top dimensional cohomology with compact support is always one-dimensional for a connected orientable manifold, regardless of whether or not the manifold is closed. Furthermore, on any (connected orientable) manifold, closed or not, Poincare duality is true when expressed as a duality between cohomology and cohomology with compact support in the complementary dimension. Thus cohomology with compact support is a natural tool when working with non-closed manifolds.