Arithmetic genus drop under a point blowup 2026-10-14
For an integral projective curve on a smooth projective surface, blowing up a point of multiplicity gives . The intersection formula for blowing up a surface and canonical divisor formula for a surface blowup yield and . Substitute both in the arithmetic adjunction formula on a smooth surface. This does not require the transformed curve to be smooth.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 14 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Blow up the distinct singular points of the integral projective curve, once at each original point, and let be its strict transform of an algebraic subvariety. Write for the pullback of a projective line and for the algebraic exceptional divisors. The multiplicity of a plane curve at a point and the intersection formula for blowing up a surface giveThe canonical divisor formula for a surface blowup gives . Applying the arithmetic adjunction formula on a smooth surface, rather than a formula requiring a smooth strict transform, yieldsand henceThe strict transform of an algebraic subvariety is still an integral projective curve. Its arithmetic genus is , even if some singularities remain. Therefore the plane curve singularity multiplicity bound isThe argument uses only one blowup of a smooth algebraic surface at each original singular point; it does not assume these blowups resolve every singularity.
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 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.