Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 21 2 i Solution 2026-10-14
Any isomorphism would permute irreducible components and preserve their intersections. In each configuration, the origin is the unique point lying on all three components, so an isomorphism must take origin to origin.
The coordinate ring of the spatial configuration isThe displayed ideal is indeed the intersection of the three coordinate-axis ideals. Its generators have no linear parts, so at the origin the residue classes of form a basis of . Hence its algebraic cotangent space and Zariski tangent space have dimension three.
For the plane configuration, the coordinate ring is . The three linear factors are distinct in every characteristic, so this principal ideal is radical. It likewise has no linear part, but now has basis and dimension two. An isomorphism of local rings induces an isomorphism of these cotangent spaces, which is impossible:Thus the varieties are not isomorphic. This is embedding dimension distinguishes three-branch curves: matching incidence of branches does not determine their local algebra.
Three spatial axes and three coplanar lines have different tangent-space dimensions at their common point
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