Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/iii/paper-113/1/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 113 1 ii Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Take the dual numbers over any field , let , and let send to zero. Its kernel is the nonzero ideal , but both spectra of rings have exactly one point: every prime ideal contains the nilpotent element , and the only prime of is . Consequently the induced map is a homeomorphism for the Zariski topology, although it is not an isomorphism of schemes:More generally, quotienting by a nilpotent ideal gives a nilpotent thickening with unchanged underlying topology. The structure sheaf retains information that the topology alone cannot recover.
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