Consider a $\mathbb{Z}$-graded chain complex $A^{\bullet}$, I know that a bounded below complex is one such that $A^i = 0$ for $i$ sufficiently small, and a bounded above complex is one such that $A^i = 0$ for sufficiently large $i$, every bounded above (or below) complex has a Cartan-Eilenberg resolution and every unbounded complex has a resolution too (according to Spaltenstein and other authors).


I wanted to ask:


* Does this apply to unbounded complexes that are not $\mathbb{Z}$-graded? Or finite complexes? Arbitrary chain complexes? An $\mathbb{N}$-graded complex for example? Do they too have resolutions?


I just wanted to know as I don't think I know the reason as to why boundedness is such a key thing, I know that the classical construction of resolutions for complexes works only for bounded complexes but I don't know why or where it fails for unbounded complexes.



Question on resolutions for arbitrary chain complexes.
Start with a (possibly bounded) sequence of maps satisfying $dd=0$. Per Fernando's comment, you can always add an infinite number of zeroes on the left and/or right to create a ${\mathbb Z}$-graded complex. You can then build a Cartan-Eilenberg resolution of that ${\mathbb Z}$- graded complex. Your question (I think) is whether this Cartan-Eilenberg resolution can be truncated to give a Cartan-Eilenberg-like resolution of your original sequence (i.e. a resolution whose coboundaries and cohomology are resolutions of your original sequence's coboundaries and cohomology). The answer is yes, because (thinking of your original sequence as a row) the C-E construction puts a column of zeros wherever your row has a zero --- and throwing away columns of zeros can't change the coboundaries and cohomologies of the rows.


(This assumes that you define "cohomology" in the obvious way at the beginning and end of your sequence --- you haven't actually told us what your definition is.)


