Derived Functors of Inverse Limits Revisited

We prove, correct and extend several results of an earlier paperof ours (using and recalling several of our later papers) aboutthe derived functors of projective limit in abelian categories.In particular we prove that if C is an abelian category satisfyingthe Grothendieck axioms AB3 and AB4* and having a set of generatorsthen the first derived functor of projective limit vanisheson so-called Mittag-Leffler sequences in C. The recent examplesgiven by Deligne and Neeman show that the condition that thecategory has a set of generators is necessary. The conditionAB4* is also necessary, and indeed we give for each integerm 1 an example of a Grothendieck category C_m and a Mittag-Lefflersequence in C_m for which the derived functors of its projectivelimit vanish in all positive degrees except m. This leads toa systematic study of derived functors of infinite productsin Grothendieck categories. Several explicit examples of theapplications of these functors are also studied.