Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2026/ii/paper-1/25f/solution

In the affine chart , the equation is , irreducible because is not a square in . The partial derivatives show the unique singular point is ; the point at infinity is smooth.
A line through meets the curve again at
Thus is birational, with inverse away from . The incidence closure has one point over every smooth and two points over , corresponding to . This is the normalization of a nodal curve and separates the two branches.
Dominated by projective space does not imply being projective space. A smooth quadric surface is rational and hence dominated by , but is not any ; for example its Picard rank is , not .

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