Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2009/iii/paper-21/1/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 21 1 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Put and . If , a projective common zero would have some coordinate . For , the polynomial could not vanish there; for , the inclusion puts in , also impossible. Thus the projective zero set is empty.
Conversely, over an algebraically closed field, emptiness of the projective zero set means the affine common zero set is contained in the origin. Every vanishes there, so the Hilbert Nullstellensatz puts in . Choose integers with , and setEvery degree- monomial has some exponent at least the corresponding , by the pigeonhole principle, and is consequently in . Those monomials generate , provingThe argument includes the unit-ideal case. This proves the Projective Nullstellensatz criterion directly from its affine counterpart.
Over a general field, this same criterion concerns geometric zeros: apply the proof after extension to an algebraic closure. Inclusion of each degree- monomial descends back to , since its class in is zero if and only if it becomes zero after a field extension; tensoring a vector space with an extension field is faithful. If instead one counts only -rational projective points, the assertion is false. For example has no real projective zero but has the complex zero , so its ideal cannot contain any power of .
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