Differential graded Lie algebras controlling infinitesimal deformations of coherent sheaves

Abstract

We use the Thom-Whitney construction to show that infinitesimal deformations of a coherent sheaf F are controlled by the differential graded Lie algebra of global sections of an acyclic resolution of the sheaf End(E), where E is any locally free resolution of F. In particular, one recovers the well known fact that the tangent space to deformations of F is Ext^1(F,F), and obstructions are contained in Ext^2(F,F). The main tool is the identification of the deformation functor associated with the Thom-Whitney DGLA of a semicosimplicial DGLA whose cohomology is concentrated in nonnegative degrees with a noncommutative Cech cohomology-type functor.