In algebraic geometry, a branch of mathematics, Serre duality is a duality for the coherent sheaf cohomology of algebraic varieties, proved by Jean-Pierre Serre. The basic version applies to vector bundles on a smooth projective variety, but Alexander Grothendieck found wide generalizations, for example to singular varieties. On an n-dimensional variety, the theorem says that a cohomology group is the dual space of another one, . Serre duality is the analog for coherent sheaf cohomology of Poincaré duality in topology, with the canonical line bundle replacing the orientation sheaf.
The Serre duality theorem is also true in complex geometry more generally, for compact complex manifolds that are not necessarily projective complex algebraic varieties. In this setting, the Serre duality theorem is an application of Hodge theory for Dolbeault cohomology, and may be seen as a result in the theory of elliptic operators.
These two different interpretations of Serre duality coincide for non-singular projective complex algebraic varieties, by an application of Dolbeault's theorem relating sheaf cohomology to Dolbeault cohomology.