Canonical scroll of a trigonal curve 2026-10-14
The rank-two bundle of fibre spans is globally generated and splits as with . On its rational normal scroll, is the degree-three pencil and . The adjunction formula then forces the displayed divisor class. Writing and on the Hirzebruch surface gives .
Minimal Hirzebruch surface 2026-09-28
The Hirzebruch surface is minimal for and every ; is not minimal because its negative section is a -curve. For , the negative section is the unique irreducible curve of negative self-intersection, so its self-intersection distinguishes the isomorphism class. The surfaces for therefore give infinitely many pairwise nonisomorphic minimal rational surfaces.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 21 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Throughout, the braces denote a multiset, so repeated splitting degrees retain their multiplicities. If the multisets agree after a common shift, permuting summands gives . Tensoring all the fibres of a vector bundle by the same line bundle leaves their one-dimensional quotient spaces unchanged. HenceThis proves one implication in the isomorphism classification of abstract rational scrolls.
For the converse first take . Every divisor class on has the form . If its square is zero, restriction to a fibre giveswhere is the hyperplane class and because . Thus . It follows that is intrinsically characterized as the primitive nonzero nef class whose square is zero. An isomorphism therefore carries to ; the sign is positive because both classes are nef and effective. The complete pencil determines the ruling, sofor an automorphism of .
On a fibre, the isomorphism preserves the positive generator of its Picard group. Consequentlyfor some integer . Push forward along the ruling, using and the projection formula for sheaves:Every automorphism of preserves each . The uniqueness of the splitting degrees in the Birkhoff–Grothendieck theorem now implies equality of the two multisets up to a shift. Replacing this by gives the sign convention in the final formula. One can see that uniqueness numerically: for a split bundle,The first difference counts the degrees with , and the second difference counts the multiplicity of . Hence these dimensions determine every splitting degree, with multiplicity.
For , subtract the smaller degree and write the normalized bundle as , . Its surface is the Hirzebruch surface . Let be its negative section and its fibre, so , , . The nef cone is generated by and : a nef divisor must have from intersection with a fibre and from intersection with , and these two inequalities also express it as a nonnegative combination of those generators. If , a class with has squarewhich vanishes only when . Thus the ruling is again intrinsic, and the same bundle argument applies. If , the surface is and has two nef square-zero rays, its two rulings. This distinguishes it from every surface. Isomorphisms may exchange its rulings, but both normalized splitting degrees are zero, so the stated classification is unchanged.
For , every scroll is , and any two single splitting degrees differ by a common shift. Thus all ranks are covered:Reading the braces as ordinary sets would lose information and make the assertion false when degrees repeat. For example, and have the same underlying set but not the same splitting multiset; their minima are both zero, so no nonzero common shift can reconcile them.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 134 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Part (i) first shows that is effective. Also : writing with and effective without as a component gives , where .
For ,Every effective member of therefore contains ; after subtracting it, the same reasoning applies again, until copies have been subtracted. Conversely adding to an effective member of is allowed. HenceFor this is just the identity system . The extra intersection hypothesis is needed: on the Hirzebruch surface , with negative section and fibre , take . Then but . Here while , so removing loses a section.
For the point blowup of a smooth algebraic surface with exceptional curve , the canonical divisor formula for a surface blowup and the intersection formula for blowing up a surface giveOne must not assume itself is effective. Instead, if an effective member of exists, then for each its class after removing has intersection with . The same fixed-component argument removes exactly the required , givingas an isomorphism, also when both sides are zero. Since is normal and is proper and birational, . The projection formula for sheaves therefore identifies the space on the left with . ConsequentlyThe PDF writes equality of spaces; this is the canonical identification just described, rather than literal equality of spaces on different schemes. This proves blowup invariance of plurigenera in arbitrary characteristic.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 146 2 b Solution 2026-09-28
Take the Hirzebruch surface with its standard toric Kähler structure. Let be its negative section of a Hirzebruch surface, and let represent the fiber class of a Hirzebruch surface and meet once. ThusThe preceding smoothing produces an embedded symplectic in class .
Suppose a compatible almost complex structure made all three surfaces almost complex. Since and are distinct, Positive intersection of J-holomorphic curves would imply . Homologically, however,a contradiction. Hence this example cannot admit such a simultaneous compatible structure.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 159 1 Solution 2026-09-28
The Picard group is the set of isomorphism classes of line bundles on , with tensor product as addition, the trivial bundle as zero and the dual bundle as inverse. On a smooth projective surface, line bundles can be represented by divisors. The intersection pairing on the Picard group of a surface is the symmetric bilinear mapobtained by moving the divisors into proper position and counting their intersections with multiplicity.
The surfaceis the first Hirzebruch surface . If is its negative section and a fiber of the ruling, its Picard lattice of a Hirzebruch surface is
Now let be the given nonisomorphic birational morphism. A birational morphism between smooth projective surfaces factors as a nonempty sequence of point blowups. Let , and take the total transform on of the exceptional curve of the first blowup. The intersection formula for blowing up a surface givesTherefore the nonzero Picard group element satisfiesThis is the isotropic divisor from a nontrivial birational morphism to the projective plane.
For a morphism , the pullback of the hyperplane bundle has the formfor an integer . If a line is contracted to a point, this bundle restricts trivially to , whereasIts degree is therefore zero, so . The homogeneous sections defining are then constants, and is constant. This proves the morphism from the projective plane contracting a line criterion.
Finally choose an integer and blow up distinct points of the smooth curve . For the resulting morphism , let be the exceptional curves. The strict transform isand the self-intersection after blowing up points on a smooth curve formula givesBlowing up a smooth point of a smooth curve does not change that curve itself, so is an isomorphism.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 152 3 e Solution Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
False. The Picard group of the Hirzebruch surface is freely generated by the negative section and a fiber . Pullbacks from form only the subgroup . For example, cannot be a pullback: its restriction to a fiber has degree , whereas every pullback from the base restricts trivially to every fiber.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 152 1 b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Insert the primitive rayinside the singular cone. The corresponding star subdivision replaces by and . Both new determinants have absolute value one, as do the two unchanged cones, so the subdivided fan is smooth. The induced proper birational toric morphism is therefore a toric resolution of singularities. Its exceptional invariant curve has self-intersection , and is the Hirzebruch surface .
Picard lattice of a Hirzebruch surface Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-05
For the Hirzebruch surface , the negative section of a Hirzebruch surface and a fiber class of a Hirzebruch surface freely generate and satisfy