Sheaf

Definition
A sheaf is a presheaf that satisfies both of the following two additional axioms:

  1. (Locality) Suppose U is an open set, {Ui}i∈I is an open cover of U U, and s,t∈F(U) are sections. If s|Ui=t|Ui for all i∈I, then s=t.
  2. (Gluing) Suppose U is an open set, {Ui}i∈I is an open cover of U, and {si∈F(Ui)} is a family of sections. If all pairs of sections agree on the overlap of their domains, that is, if si|Uij=sj|Uij for all i,j∈I, then there exists a section s∈F(U) such that s|Ui=si for all i∈I.
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They can be locally free sheaf.
Related: localization of a ring.


Reflection: from here.
Recall the primary motivation of, say, Algebraic Geometry: a geometric space is determined by its algebra of functions. Well, actually, this isn't quite true --- a complex manifold, for example, tends to have very few entire functions (any bounded entire function on C is constant, and so there are no non-constant entire functions on a torus, say), so in algebraic geometry, they use "sheaves", which are a way of talking about local functions. In real geometry, though (e.g. topology, or differential geometry), there are partition of unity, and it is more-or-less true that a space is determined by its algebra of total functions...
(From a physics point of view, it should be taken as a definition of "space" that it depends only on its algebra of functions. These functions are the allowed "observables" or "measurements" --- if you can't measure the difference between two systems, you have no right to treat them as different.)