Solving the local cohomology problem in U(1) chiral gauge theories within a finite lattice

In the gauge-invariant construction of abelian chiral gauge theories on the lattice based on the Ginsparg-Wilson relation, the gauge anomaly is topological and its cohomologically trivial part plays the role of the local counter term. We give a prescription to solve the local cohomology problem within a finite lattice by reformulating the Poincare lemma so that it holds true on the finite lattice up to exponentially small corrections. We then argue that the path-integral measure of Weyl fermions can be constructed directly from the quantities defined on the finite lattice. (author)