The spectral sequence is as follows: where X is a complex manifold, is its cohomology with complex coefficients and the left hand term, which is the -page of the spectral sequence, is the cohomology with values in the sheaf of holomorphic differential forms. The existence of the spectral sequence as stated above follows from the Poincaré lemma, which gives a quasi-isomorphism of complexes of sheaves together with the usual spectral sequence resulting from a filtered object, in this case the Hodge filtration of.
Degeneration
The centraltheorem related to this spectral sequence is that for a compact Kähler manifoldX, for example a projective variety, the above spectral sequence degenerates at the -page. In particular, it gives an isomorphism referred to as the Hodge decomposition The degeneration of the spectral sequence can be shown using Hodge theory. An extension of this degeneration in a relative situation, for a proper smooth map, was also shown by Deligne.
Purely algebraic proof
For smooth proper varieties over a field of characteristic 0, the spectral sequence can also be written as where denotes the sheaf of algebraic differential forms on X, is the de Rham complex, consisting of the with the differential being the exterior derivative. In this guise, all terms in the spectral sequence are of purely algebraic nature. In particular, the question of the degeneration of this spectral sequence makes sense for varieties over a field of characteristic p>0. showed that for X over a perfect field of positive characteristic, the spectral sequence degenerates, provided that X admits a lift to a scheme over the ring of Witt vectors W2 of length two. Their proof uses the Cartier operator, which only exists in positive characteristic. This degeneration result in characteristic p>0 can then be used to also prove the degeneration for the spectral sequence for X over a field of characteristic 0.
Non-commutative version
The de Rham complex and also the de Rham cohomology of a variety admit generalizations to non-commutative geometry. This more general setup studies dg categories. To a dg category, one can associate its Hochschild homology, and also its periodic cyclic homology. When applied to the category of perfect complexes on a smooth proper varietyX, these invariants give back differential forms, respectively, de Rham cohomology of X. Kontsevich and Soibelman conjectured in 2009 that for any smooth and proper dg category C over a field of characteristic 0, the Hodge-de Rham spectral sequence starting with Hochschild homology and abutting to periodic cyclic homology, degenerates: This conjecture was proved by and by adapting the above idea of Deligne and Illusie to the generality of smooth and proper dg-categories. has given a proof of this degeneration using topological Hochschild homology.