Notes on the horizontal cohomology

This paper is devoted to the horizontal (``characteristic’') cohomology of systems of differential equations. Recent results on computing the horizontal cohomology via the compatibility complex are generalized. New results on the Vinogradov C-spectral sequence and the Krasil’shchik C-cohomology are obtained. As an application of general theory, the examples of an evolution equation and a p-form gauge theory are explicitly worked out.