Algebraic Geometry
Algebraic Geometry
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Paper 1, Section II, I
commentLet be an algebraically closed field and let be a non-empty affine variety. Show that is a finite union of irreducible subvarieties.
Let and be subvarieties of given by the vanishing loci of ideals and respectively. Prove the following assertions.
(i) The variety is equal to the vanishing locus of the ideal .
(ii) The variety is equal to the vanishing locus of the ideal .
Decompose the vanishing locus
into irreducible components.
Let be the union of the three coordinate axes. Let be the union of three distinct lines through the point in . Prove that is not isomorphic to .
Paper 2, Section II, I
commentLet be an algebraically closed field and . Exhibit as an open subset of affine space . Deduce that is smooth. Prove that it is also irreducible.
Prove that is isomorphic to a closed subvariety in an affine space.
Show that the matrix multiplication map
that sends a pair of matrices to their product is a morphism.
Prove that any morphism from to is constant.
Prove that for any morphism from to is constant.
Paper 3, Section II, I
commentIn this question, all varieties are over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero.
What does it mean for a projective variety to be smooth? Give an example of a smooth affine variety whose projective closure is not smooth.
What is the genus of a smooth projective curve? Let be the hypersurface . Prove that contains a smooth curve of genus
Let be an irreducible curve of degree 2 . Prove that is isomorphic to .
We define a generalized conic in to be the vanishing locus of a non-zero homogeneous quadratic polynomial in 3 variables. Show that there is a bijection between the set of generalized conics in and the projective space , which maps the conic to the point whose coordinates are the coefficients of .
(i) Let be the subset of conics that consist of unions of two distinct lines. Prove that is not Zariski closed, and calculate its dimension.
(ii) Let be the homogeneous ideal of polynomials vanishing on . Determine generators for the ideal .
Paper 4, Section II, I
commentLet be a smooth irreducible projective algebraic curve over an algebraically closed field.
Let be an effective divisor on . Prove that the vector space of rational functions with poles bounded by is finite dimensional.
Let and be linearly equivalent divisors on . Exhibit an isomorphism between the vector spaces and .
What is a canonical divisor on ? State the Riemann-Roch theorem and use it to calculate the degree of a canonical divisor in terms of the genus of .
Prove that the canonical divisor on a smooth cubic plane curve is linearly equivalent to the zero divisor.
Paper 1, Section II, F
commentLet be an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. Prove that an affine variety is irreducible if and only if the associated ideal of polynomials that vanish on is prime.
Prove that the variety is irreducible.
State what it means for an affine variety over to be smooth and determine whether or not is smooth.
Paper 2, Section II, F
commentLet be an algebraically closed field of characteristic not equal to 2 and let be a nonsingular quadric surface.
(a) Prove that is birational to .
(b) Prove that there exists a pair of disjoint lines on .
(c) Prove that the affine variety does not contain any lines.
Paper 3, Section II, F
comment(i) Suppose is an affine equation whose projective completion is a smooth projective curve. Give a basis for the vector space of holomorphic differential forms on this curve. [You are not required to prove your assertion.]
Let be the plane curve given by the vanishing of the polynomial
over the complex numbers.
(ii) Prove that is nonsingular.
(iii) Let be a line in and define to be the divisor . Prove that is a canonical divisor on .
(iv) Calculate the minimum degree such that there exists a non-constant map
of degree .
[You may use any results from the lectures provided that they are stated clearly.]
Paper 4, Section II, F
commentLet be a basis for the homogeneous polynomials of degree in variables and . Then the image of the given by
is called a rational normal curve.
Let be a collection of points in general linear position in . Prove that there exists a unique rational normal curve in passing through these points.
Choose a basis of homogeneous polynomials of degree 3 as above, and give generators for the homogeneous ideal of the corresponding rational normal curve.
Paper 1, Section II, F
comment(a) Let be an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0 . Consider the algebraic variety defined over by the polynomials
Determine
(i) the irreducible components of ,
(ii) the tangent space at each point of ,
(iii) for each irreducible component, the smooth points of that component, and
(iv) the dimensions of the irreducible components.
(b) Let be a finite extension of fields, and . Identify with over and show that
is the complement in of the vanishing set of some polynomial. [You need not show that is non-empty. You may assume that if and only if form a basis of over .]
Paper 2, Section II, F
comment(a) Let be a commutative algebra over a field , and a -linear homomorphism. Define , the derivations of centered in , and define the tangent space in terms of this.
Show directly from your definition that if is not a zero divisor and , then the natural map is an isomorphism.
(b) Suppose is an algebraically closed field and for . Let
Find a surjective map . Justify your answer.
Paper 3, Section II, F
commentLet be the curve defined by the equation over the complex numbers , and let be its closure.
(a) Show is smooth.
(b) Determine the ramification points of the defined by
Using this, determine the Euler characteristic and genus of , stating clearly any theorems that you are using.
(c) Let . Compute for all , and determine a basis for
Paper 4, Section II, F
comment(a) Let be a smooth projective plane curve, defined by a homogeneous polynomial of degree over the complex numbers .
(i) Define the divisor , where is a hyperplane in not contained in , and prove that it has degree .
(ii) Give (without proof) an expression for the degree of in terms of .
(iii) Show that does not have genus 2 .
(b) Let be a smooth projective curve of genus over the complex numbers . For let
there is no with , and for all
(i) Define , for a divisor .
(ii) Show that for all ,
(iii) Show that has exactly elements. [Hint: What happens for large ?]
(iv) Now suppose that has genus 2 . Show that or .
[In this question denotes the set of positive integers.]
Paper 1, Section II, I
comment(a) Let be an uncountable field, a maximal ideal and
Show that every element of is algebraic over .
(b) Now assume that is algebraically closed. Suppose that is an ideal, and that vanishes on . Using the result of part (a) or otherwise, show that for some .
(c) Let be a morphism of affine algebraic varieties. Show if and only if the map is injective.
Suppose now that , and that and are irreducible. Define the dimension of , and show . [You may use whichever definition of you find most convenient.]
Paper 2, Section II, I
comment(a) Let be an affine algebraic variety defined over the field .
Define the tangent space for , and the dimension of in terms of .
Suppose that is an algebraically closed field with char . Show directly from your definition that if , where is irreducible, then .
[Any form of the Nullstellensatz may be used if you state it clearly.]
(b) Suppose that char , and let be the vector space of homogeneous polynomials of degree in 3 variables over . Show that
is a non-empty Zariski open subset of .
Paper 3, Section II, I
comment(a) State the Riemann-Roch theorem.
(b) Let be a smooth projective curve of genus 1 over an algebraically closed field , with char . Show that there exists an isomorphism from to the plane cubic in defined by the equation
for some distinct .
(c) Let be the point at infinity on . Show that the map is an isomorphism.
Describe how this defines a group structure on . Denote addition by . Determine all the points with in terms of the equation of the plane curve in part (b).
Paper 4, Section II, I
commentState a theorem which describes the canonical divisor of a smooth plane curve in terms of the divisor of a hyperplane section. Express the degree of the canonical divisor and the genus of in terms of the degree of . [You need not prove these statements.]
From now on, we work over . Consider the curve in defined by the equation
Let be its projective completion. Show that is smooth.
Compute the genus of by applying the Riemann-Hurwitz theorem to the morphism induced from the rational map . [You may assume that the discriminant of is .]
Paper 1, Section II, I
commentLet be an algebraically closed field.
(a) Let and be varieties defined over . Given a function , define what it means for to be a morphism of varieties.
(b) If is an affine variety, show that the coordinate ring coincides with the ring of regular functions on . [Hint: You may assume a form of the Hilbert Nullstellensatz.]
(c) Now suppose and are affine varieties. Show that if and are isomorphic, then there is an isomorphism of -algebras .
(d) Show that is not isomorphic to .
Paper 2, Section II, I
commentLet be an algebraically closed field of any characteristic.
(a) Define what it means for a variety to be non-singular at a point .
(b) Let be a hypersurface for an irreducible homogeneous polynomial. Show that the set of singular points of is , where is the ideal generated by
(c) Consider the projective plane curve corresponding to the affine curve in given by the equation
Find the singular points of this projective curve if char . What goes wrong if char ?
Paper 3, Section II, I
comment(a) Define what it means to give a rational map between algebraic varieties. Define a birational map.
(b) Let
Define a birational map from to . [Hint: Consider lines through the origin.]
(c) Let be the surface given by the equation
Consider the blow-up of at the origin, i.e. the subvariety of defined by the equations for , with coordinates on . Let be the projection and . Recall that the proper transform of is the closure of in . Give equations for , and describe the fibres of the morphism .
Paper 4, Section II, I
comment(a) Let and be non-singular projective curves over a field and let be a non-constant morphism. Define the ramification degree of at a point .
(b) Suppose char . Let be the plane cubic with , and let . Explain how the projection
defines a morphism . Determine the degree of and the ramification degrees for all .
(c) Let be a non-singular projective curve and let . Show that there is a non-constant rational function on which is regular on .
Paper 1, Section II, H
commentLet be an algebraically closed field.
(a) Let and be affine varieties defined over . Given a map , define what it means for to be a morphism of affine varieties.
(b) Let be the map given by
Show that is a morphism. Show that the image of is a closed subvariety of and determine its ideal.
(c) Let be the map given by
Show that the image of is a closed subvariety of .
Paper 2, Section II, H
commentIn this question we work over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. Let and let be the closure of in
(a) Show that is a non-singular curve.
(b) Show that is a regular differential on .
(c) Compute the divisor of . What is the genus of ?
Paper 3, Section II, H
comment(a) Let be an affine variety. Define the tangent space of at a point . Say what it means for the variety to be singular at .
Define the dimension of in terms of (i) the tangent spaces of , and (ii) Krull dimension.
(b) Consider the ideal generated by the set . What is
Using the generators of the ideal, calculate the tangent space of a point in . What has gone wrong? [A complete argument is not necessary.]
(c) Calculate the dimension of the tangent space at each point for , and determine the location of the singularities of
Paper 4, Section II, H
comment(a) Let be a smooth projective curve, and let be an effective divisor on . Explain how defines a morphism from to some projective space.
State a necessary and sufficient condition on so that the pull-back of a hyperplane via is an element of the linear system .
State necessary and sufficient conditions for to be an isomorphism onto its image.
(b) Let now have genus 2 , and let be an effective canonical divisor. Show that the morphism is a morphism of degree 2 from to .
Consider the divisor for points with . Show that the linear system associated to this divisor induces a morphism from to a quartic curve in . Show furthermore that , with , if and only if .
[You may assume the Riemann-Roch theorem.]
Paper 1, Section II, F
commentLet be an algebraically closed field.
(i) Let and be affine varieties defined over . Given a map , define what it means for to be a morphism of affine varieties.
(ii) With still affine varieties over , show that there is a one-to-one correspondence between , the set of morphisms between and , and , the set of -algebra homomorphisms between and .
(iii) Let be given by . Show that the image of is an affine variety , and find a set of generators for .
Paper 2, Section II, F
comment(i) Define the radical of an ideal.
(ii) Assume the following statement: If is an algebraically closed field and is an ideal, then either or . Prove the Hilbert Nullstellensatz, namely that if with algebraically closed, then
(iii) Show that if is a commutative ring and are ideals, then
(iv) Is
Give a proof or a counterexample.
Paper 3, Section II, F
comment(i) Let be an affine variety. Define the tangent space of at a point . Say what it means for the variety to be singular at .
(ii) Find the singularities of the surface in given by the equation
(iii) Consider . Let be the blowup of the origin. Compute the proper transform of in , and show it is non-singular.
Paper 4, Section II, F
comment(i) Explain how a linear system on a curve may induce a morphism from to projective space. What condition on the linear system is necessary to yield a morphism such that the pull-back of a hyperplane section is an element of the linear system? What condition is necessary to imply the morphism is an embedding?
(ii) State the Riemann-Roch theorem for curves.
(iii) Show that any divisor of degree 5 on a curve of genus 2 induces an embedding.
Paper 1, Section II, H
commentLet be an algebraically closed field and . We say that is singular at if either is a singularity of the hypersurface or has an irreducible factor of multiplicity strictly greater than one with . Given , let and let
(i) Show that for some (you need not determine ) and that is a Zariski closed subvariety of .
(ii) Show that the fibres of the projection map are linear subspaces of . Conclude that .
(iii) Hence show that smooth is dense in .
[You may use standard results from lectures if they are accurately quoted.]
Paper 2, Section II, H
comment(i) Let be an algebraically closed field, , and a subset of .
Let when . Show that is an ideal, and that does not have any non-zero nilpotent elements.
Let be affine varieties, and be a -algebra homomorphism. Show that determines a map of sets from to .
(ii) Let be an irreducible affine variety. Define the dimension of (in terms of the tangent spaces of ) and the transcendence dimension of .
State the Noether normalization theorem. Using this, or otherwise, prove that the transcendence dimension of equals the dimension of .
Paper 3, Section II, H
commentLet be a polynomial with distinct roots, , char , and let be the projective closure of the affine curve
Show that is smooth, with a single point at .
Pick an appropriate and compute the valuation for all .
Hence determine .
Paper 4, Section II, H
commentLet be a smooth projective curve of genus over an algebraically closed field of characteristic , and suppose there is a degree 2 morphism . How many ramification points of are there?
Suppose and are distinct ramification points of . Show that , but .
Now suppose . Show that every divisor of degree 2 on is linearly equivalent to for some , and deduce that every divisor of degree 0 is linearly equivalent to for some .
Show that the subgroup of the divisor class group of has order
Paper 1, Section II, H
commentLet be an affine variety over an algebraically closed field . What does it mean to say that is irreducible? Show that any non-empty affine variety is the union of a finite number of irreducible affine varieties .
Define the ideal of . Show that is a prime ideal if and only if is irreducible.
Assume that the base field has characteristic zero. Determine the irreducible components of
Paper 2, Section II, H
commentLet be an irreducible quadric surface.
(i) Show that if is singular, then every nonsingular point lies in exactly one line in , and that all the lines meet in the singular point, which is unique.
(ii) Show that if is nonsingular then each point of lies on exactly two lines of .
Let be nonsingular, a point of , and a plane not containing . Show that the projection from to is a birational map . At what points does fail to be regular? At what points does fail to be regular? Justify your answers.
Paper 3, Section II, H
commentLet be the plane curve given by the polynomial
over the field of complex numbers, where .
(i) Show that is nonsingular.
(ii) Compute the divisors of the rational functions
on .
(iii) Consider the morphism . Compute its ramification points and degree.
(iv) Show that a basis for the space of regular differentials on is
where
Paper 4, Section II, H
commentLet be a nonsingular projective curve, and a divisor on of degree .
(i) State the Riemann-Roch theorem for , giving a brief explanation of each term. Deduce that if then .
(ii) Show that, for every ,
Deduce that . Show also that if , then for all but finitely many .
(iii) Deduce that for every there exists a divisor of degree with .
Paper 1, Section II, I
comment(a) Let be an affine variety, its ring of functions, and let . Assume is algebraically closed. Define the tangent space at . Prove the following assertions.
(i) A morphism of affine varieties induces a linear map
(ii) If and , then has the natural structure of an affine variety, and the natural morphism of into induces an isomorphism for all .
(iii) For all , the subset is a Zariski-closed subvariety of .
(b) Show that the set of nilpotent matrices
may be realised as an affine surface in , and determine its tangent space at all points .
Define what it means for two varieties and to be birationally equivalent, and show that the variety of nilpotent matrices is birationally equivalent to .
Paper 2, Section II, I
commentLet be a field, an ideal of , and let . Define the radical of and show that it is also an ideal.
The Nullstellensatz says that if is a maximal ideal, then the inclusion is an algebraic extension of fields. Suppose from now on that is algebraically closed. Assuming the above statement of the Nullstellensatz, prove the following.
(i) If is a maximal ideal, then , for some .
(ii) If , then , where
(iii) For an affine subvariety of , we set
Prove that for some affine subvariety , if and only if .
[Hint. Given , you may wish to consider the ideal in generated and .]
(iv) If is a finitely generated algebra over , and does not contain nilpotent elements, then there is an affine variety , for some , with .
Assuming , find when is the ideal in .
Paper 3, Section II, I
commentLet be the projective closure of the affine curve . Let denote the differential . Show that is smooth, and compute for all .
Calculate the genus of .
Paper 4, Section II, I
commentLet be a smooth projective curve of genus 2, defined over the complex numbers. Show that there is a morphism which is a double cover, ramified at six points.
Explain briefly why cannot be embedded into .
For any positive integer , show that there is a smooth affine plane curve which is a double cover of ramified at points.
[State clearly any theorems that you use.]
Paper 1, Section II, H
comment(i) Let be an affine variety over an algebraically closed field. Define what it means for to be irreducible, and show that if is a non-empty open subset of an irreducible , then is dense in .
(ii) Show that matrices with distinct eigenvalues form an affine variety, and are a Zariski open subvariety of affine space over an algebraically closed field.
(iii) Let be the characteristic polynomial of . Show that the matrices such that form a Zariski closed subvariety of . Hence conclude that this subvariety is all of .
Paper 2, Section II, H
comment(i) Let be an algebraically closed field, and let be an ideal in . Define what it means for to be homogeneous.
Now let be a Zariski closed subvariety invariant under ; that is, if and , then . Show that is a homogeneous ideal.
(ii) Let , and let be the graph of .
Let be the closure of in .
Write, in terms of , the homogeneous equations defining .
Assume that is an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. Now suppose and . Find the singular points of the projective surface .
Paper 3, Section II, H
commentLet be a smooth projective curve over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 0 .
(i) Let be a divisor on .
Define , and show .
(ii) Define the space of rational differentials .
If is a point on , and a local parameter at , show that .
Use that equality to give a definition of , for . [You need not show that your definition is independent of the choice of local parameter.]
Paper 4, Section II, H
commentLet be a smooth projective curve over an algebraically closed field .
State the Riemann-Roch theorem, briefly defining all the terms that appear.
Now suppose has genus 1 , and let .
Compute for . Show that defines an isomorphism of with a smooth plane curve in which is defined by a polynomial of degree 3 .
Paper 1, Section II, G
comment(i) Let . Show that is birational to , but not isomorphic to it.
(ii) Let be an affine variety. Define the dimension of in terms of the tangent spaces of .
(iii) Let be an irreducible polynomial, where is an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic. Show that .
[You may assume the Nullstellensatz.]
Paper 2, Section II, G
commentLet be the set of matrices of rank at most over a field . Show that is naturally an affine subvariety of and that is a Zariski closed subvariety of .
Show that if , then 0 is a singular point of .
Determine the dimension of .
Paper 3, Section II, G
comment(i) Let be a curve, and be a smooth point on . Define what a local parameter at is.
Now let be a rational map to a quasi-projective variety . Show that if is projective, extends to a morphism defined at .
Give an example where this fails if is not projective, and an example of a morphism which does not extend to
(ii) Let and be curves in over a field of characteristic not equal to 2 . Let be the map . Determine the degree of , and the ramification for all .
Paper 4, Section II, G
commentLet be the projective curve obtained from the affine curve , where the are distinct and .
(i) Show there is a unique point at infinity, .
(ii) Compute .
(iii) Show .
(iv) Compute for all .
[You may not use the Riemann-Roch theorem.]
Paper 1, Section II, G
commentDefine what is meant by a rational map from a projective variety to . What is a regular point of a rational map?
Consider the rational map given by
Show that is not regular at the points and that it is regular elsewhere, and that it is a birational map from to itself.
Let be the plane curve given by the vanishing of the polynomial over a field of characteristic zero. Show that is irreducible, and that determines a birational equivalence between and a nonsingular plane quartic.
Paper 2, Section II, G
commentLet be an irreducible variety over an algebraically closed field . Define the tangent space of at a point . Show that for any integer , the set is a closed subvariety of .
Assume that has characteristic different from 2. Let be the variety given by the ideal , where
Determine the singular subvariety of , and compute at each singular point . [You may assume that is irreducible.]
Paper 3, Section II, G
commentLet be a smooth projective curve, and let be an effective divisor on . Explain how defines a morphism from to some projective space. State the necessary and sufficient conditions for to be finite. State the necessary and sufficient conditions for to be an isomorphism onto its image.
Let have genus 2 , and let be an effective canonical divisor. Show that the morphism is a morphism of degree 2 from to .
By considering the divisor for points with , show that there exists a birational morphism from to a singular plane quartic.
[You may assume the Riemann-Roch Theorem.]
Paper 4, Section II, G
commentState the Riemann-Roch theorem for a smooth projective curve , and use it to outline a proof of the Riemann-Hurwitz formula for a non-constant morphism between projective nonsingular curves in characteristic zero.
Let be a smooth projective plane cubic over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, written in normal form for a homogeneous cubic polynomial , and let be the point at infinity. Taking the group law on for which is the identity element, let be a point of order 3 . Show that there exists a linear form such that .
Let be nonzero linear forms. Suppose the lines are distinct, do not meet at a point of , and are nowhere tangent to . Let be given by the vanishing of the polynomials
Show that has genus 4 . [You may assume without proof that is an irreducible smooth curve.]