I tried to convince myself that the two caracterizations of a presheaf that is a sheaf given in wikipedia are equivalent but I couldn't.
(F presheaf and notations from wiki) Let's take a simple case, the following inclusions of open sets: $$ U_1 \cap U_2 \subset U_i \subset U_1\cup U_2 =:U ,\quad (i=1,2)$$
The restriction maps $res_{U_i, U}:F(U)\rightarrow F(U_i) $ define the first arrow $F(U)\rightarrow F(U_1)\times F(U_2)$ in the equalizer diagram (cf. wikipedia link). (by def. of a product).
Very very explicitely, the two other maps $F(U_1)\times F(U_2)\rightarrow F(U_1)\times F(U_1\cap U_2)\times F(U_2\cap U_1)\times F(U_2) $ are defined by the following maps
- $F(U_1)\times F(U_2)\overset{\pi_1}{\rightarrow} F(U_1) \overset{res_{U_1,U_1}}{\longrightarrow} F(U_1)\ $ ( $\pi_1$ canonical projection) $F(U_1)\times F(U_2)\overset{\pi_1}{\rightarrow} F(U_1) \overset{res_{U_1\cap U_2,U_1}}{\longrightarrow} F(U_1\cap U_2) $
$F(U_1)\times F(U_2)\overset{\pi_2}{\rightarrow} F(U_2) \overset{res_{U_1\cap U_2,U_2}}{\longrightarrow} F(U_1\cap U_2)\ $
$F(U_1)\times F(U_2)\overset{\pi_2}{\rightarrow} F(U_2) \overset{res_{U_2,U_2}}{\longrightarrow} F(U_2)\ $
and
- $F(U_1)\times F(U_2)\overset{\pi_1}{\rightarrow} F(U_1) \overset{res_{U_1,U_1}}{\longrightarrow} F(U_1)\ $ ( same as above)
$F(U_1)\times F(U_2)\overset{\pi_2}{\rightarrow} F(U_2) \overset{res_{U_1\cap U_2,U_2}}{\longrightarrow} F(U_1\cap U_2)\ $ (order changed) $F(U_1)\times F(U_2)\overset{\pi_1}{\rightarrow} F(U_1) \overset{res_{U_1\cap U_2,U_1}}{\longrightarrow} F(U_1\cap U_2) $ (order changed) $F(U_1)\times F(U_2)\overset{\pi_2}{\rightarrow} F(U_2) \overset{res_{U_2,U_2}}{\longrightarrow} F(U_2)\ $ (same as above)
All in all, that equalizer condition is just saying that $$ res_{U_1\cap U_2, U_1} \circ res_{U_1,U} \overset{!}{=} res_{U_1\cap U_2, U_2} \circ res_{U_2,U}$$ which already holds because both equal $res_{U_1\cap U_2, U} $ from the def. of presheaf. This doesn't look like gluing. What did I get wrong?
Second question: the gluing axiom itself is said to be formulated for a concrete category such that sthg, whereas the equalizer condition holds for a category with products. Is one formulation more general than the other?
But I start thinking that the equalizer condition is rather saying sthg about the object than the arrow
– Noix07 Jul 27 '14 at 13:22