Résumé
In mathematics, particularly homological algebra, the zig-zag lemma asserts the existence of a particular long exact sequence in the homology groups of certain chain complexes. The result is valid in every . In an abelian category (such as the category of abelian groups or the category of vector spaces over a given field), let and be chain complexes that fit into the following short exact sequence: Such a sequence is shorthand for the following commutative diagram: where the rows are exact sequences and each column is a chain complex. The zig-zag lemma asserts that there is a collection of boundary maps that makes the following sequence exact: The maps and are the usual maps induced by homology. The boundary maps are explained below. The name of the lemma arises from the "zig-zag" behavior of the maps in the sequence. A variant version of the zig-zag lemma is commonly known as the "snake lemma" (it extracts the essence of the proof of the zig-zag lemma given below). The maps are defined using a standard diagram chasing argument. Let represent a class in , so . Exactness of the row implies that is surjective, so there must be some with . By commutativity of the diagram, By exactness, Thus, since is injective, there is a unique element such that . This is a cycle, since is injective and since . That is, . This means is a cycle, so it represents a class in . We can now define With the boundary maps defined, one can show that they are well-defined (that is, independent of the choices of c and b). The proof uses diagram chasing arguments similar to that above. Such arguments are also used to show that the sequence in homology is exact at each group.
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