Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 15 5 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use algebraic Chern classes in the Chow ring of a nonsingular algebraic variety . For a vector bundle of rank , the classes are invariant under bundle isomorphism, have , vanish for , and commute with pullback. Their Total Chern class is . The Whitney sum formula for Chern classes applies to every short exact sequence :Normalization for a line bundle is , where is the divisor class. In particular, , , and the trivial bundle has total class one. These properties determine the classes: pull back to the iterated projective bundle where has a filtration by line bundles. The projective bundle formula for Chow groups makes this pullback injective, and Whitney multiplication expresses as the elementary symmetric polynomial of the first classes of the line factors. This also gives .
Let be the smooth degree- projective hypersurface and set . The algebraic cotangent bundle has rank . Restriction of the cotangent Euler sequence in homogeneous coordinates remains exact, because its terms and quotient are locally free. Thusand Whitney multiplication givesThe defining equation has degree , so the conormal sheaf is . Smoothness makes its differential map injective with locally free quotient, giving the Conormal exact sequence for Kähler differentialsA second application of the Whitney sum formula for Chern classes yieldsThe inverse is the finite geometric series in the graded Chow ring: terms in codimension greater than vanish. Expanding gives every requested class,For example,when the corresponding ranks and codimensions exist. The first expression agrees with the canonical bundle of a smooth projective hypersurface . For a plane curve, , matching Q4. For a quartic surface in , and , whose degree is . These checks also confirm the sign in the cotangent, rather than tangent, formula.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 24F iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The intersection with a line is a hyperplane section:The canonical bundle of a smooth projective hypersurface formula, obtained from the adjunction formula, gives for a smooth degree-four curve in Thus , so the divisor class of is the canonical divisor class. Therefore is a canonical divisor. Its degree is also , consistently with .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 159 2 Solution Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-14
A minimal algebraic surface is a smooth projective surface containing no exceptional curve of the first kind, namely no smooth rational curve of self-intersection . An abelian surface contains no rational curve because every morphism from to an abelian variety is constant. It therefore has no -curve and is minimal.
For every , the Minimal Hirzebruch surface is a rational minimal surface. These surfaces are pairwise nonisomorphic: the negative section is the unique irreducible curve of negative self-intersection and has square , so an isomorphism would recover . Thus there are infinitely many nonisomorphic minimal rational surfaces.
A K3 surface is a smooth projective surface with and . For a smooth curve of geometric genus , the adjunction formula givesand hence
An elliptic surface is a smooth projective surface with a morphism to a smooth curve whose generic fiber is a smooth genus-one curve. If is an elliptic curve, projectionis an elliptic fibration. Its canonical bundle is pulled back from , so every positive pluricanonical space vanishes and the Kodaira dimension is . This supplies the requested negative-Kodaira-dimension example.
For an elliptically fibered K3 surface, choose a smooth quartic containing a line . The canonical bundle of a smooth projective hypersurface formula makes trivial, and the standard cohomology sequence gives , so is K3. The pencil of planes through cuts into plus a residual plane cubic. The residual linear system is basepoint-free, has square zero and defines a morphism whose generic fiber is a smooth plane cubic. This is the Elliptic K3 surface from a quartic containing a line.
A surface of general type is a smooth projective surface of Kodaira dimension two. Let be a smooth plane curve of degree eight and letbe the degree-two cover branched along . The branch-cover canonical-bundle formula givesThis divisor is ample, so is a double plane of general type and is the required finite morphism of degree two.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 118 2 Solution Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-14
An irreducible complex analytic hypersurface in a complex manifold is a closed irreducible analytic subset of pure complex codimension one. A local defining function of a complex analytic hypersurface at is a holomorphic function on a neighbourhood such thatThe necessary local algebra is that the stalk is a regular local ring, hence a unique factorization domain, and that the local branches of a hypersurface germ determine finitely many height-one prime ideals. Each is principal; the product of their generators gives , and removing repeated factors makes it reduced. This also covers a globally irreducible hypersurface that has several local branches at a singular point.
A divisor on a complex manifold is a locally finite formal sum of irreducible analytic hypersurfaces with integer coefficients. On a sufficiently small , local defining functions give a meromorphic equation for . The quotients are nowhere-zero holomorphic functions. Gluing frames byproduces the holomorphic line bundle associated to a divisor , and gives its canonical meromorphic section with divisor .
The Euler sequence on complex projective spaceimplies . Taking the dual determinant yields the canonical bundle of complex projective spacewhere is a hyperplane divisor.
The hypotheses on the homogeneous polynomial say thatis a smooth projective hypersurface of degree , so its divisor line bundle is . The adjunction formula givesThis is the canonical bundle of a smooth projective hypersurface.
Now fix an isomorphism and regard and as holomorphic sections of the same holomorphic line bundle. They have no common zero because . Their homogeneous coordinates therefore define a well-defined holomorphic mapIn a local frame, the quotientis a meromorphic function with divisor . Thus and , both with multiplicity one. The degree of a holomorphic map is therefore one. A nonconstant degree-one holomorphic map between compact connected Riemann surfaces is a biholomorphism, so the displayed map is biholomorphic.