If a projective line does not contain the projective plane curve , its hyperplane-section divisor iswhere is the intersection multiplicity. The Bézout theorem gives .
The intersection number is the degree of the restriction of to the complete integral curve . On a smooth surface, proper effective intersections are sums of local intersection multiplicities.
Movable part of a linear system 2026-10-05
The movable part is , where is the fixed part. It has no fixed components. On a smooth algebraic surface its associated divisor is nef: for each curve choose a member avoiding that curve and use nonnegative local intersection multiplicities.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 27 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Write and , with the lattice sums taken over nonzero lattice elements. Reindexing the normally convergent series shows that the Weierstrass elliptic function is an even function, and consequently is an odd function. Expanding near zero and cancelling the odd lattice sums gives the Laurent coefficients of the Weierstrass elliptic functionThus the elliptic function has no pole at zero and its constant term is . By periodicity it has no poles anywhere. An entire elliptic function is bounded on a fundamental parallelogram and hence everywhere, so Liouville theorem makes it constant. This proves the Weierstrass elliptic differential equation
We first verify that the cubic is smooth, rather than presupposing it when using its group law. There are three nonzero two-torsion points of a complex torus . Oddness and periodicity imply . Since has a triple pole and no other poles on the torus, value multiplicity of an elliptic function says that these three distinct zeros exhaust its zeros and are simple. Put . Each has a double zero at , since and the zero of is simple. If with , this same function would have at least four zeros counted with multiplicity, although its only pole is double. Therefore the half-period values of the Weierstrass elliptic function are distinct. They are roots of , so all its roots are distinct and the affine curve is a smooth algebraic curve. Its projective closure isIt has the single point at infinity. The derivative with respect to of the defining homogeneous polynomial is nonzero at , proving smoothness there too.
For any finite value , value multiplicity of an elliptic function gives exactly two solutions of , counting multiplicities. Evenness supplies the pair . At a nonzero half-period these coincide and the zero is double; elsewhere they are distinct. An even elliptic function therefore descends to a meromorphic function of on the Riemann sphere. To justify descent at a half-period, put : both and are even in , and is times a nonvanishing even analytic function. The local Laurent series of is consequently meromorphic in the coordinate . At zero the same argument uses . Every meromorphic function on the Riemann sphere is a rational function, proving that even elliptic functions are rational in the Weierstrass function.
For an arbitrary elliptic function , its even part is . Its odd part divided by is an even meromorphic function, hence is with rational. We have therefore proved the elliptic function-field decompositionUniqueness follows by taking even and odd parts. In particular the field of elliptic functions is .
Define and elsewhere on . Periodicity makes the map well defined. Near zero, the projective chart has coordinates and , so the extension is holomorphic. The fiber description above proves injectivity: the two candidates are distinguished by unless they coincide at a half-period. It also proves surjectivity, since every occurs and the two derivatives are the two allowed values, with at a branch value.
Finally, a nonvertical line pulls back to the elliptic function , whose only pole is triple at zero. Its three zeros , counted with intersection multiplicity, satisfy modulo by the zero-pole sum of an elliptic function. On the cubic, reflection corresponds to . The chord-and-tangent group law therefore gives . Vertical lines give inverse pairs; tangencies are included through repeated zeros, and the identity cases follow from the extension at zero. This completes the Weierstrass uniformization by half-period values: is a group isomorphism.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 22 1 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let be the projective cubic of a Weierstrass equation of an elliptic curve, allowing its elliptic-curve discriminant to vanish, and let . Use only the smooth locus of a variety : the singular point, if present, is excluded. For , intersect their chord with , using the tangent if and counting intersection multiplicity. If the third intersection is , define , wherein general Weierstrass equation of an elliptic curve coordinates. The line through and gives this reflection. A vertical chord gives , and the tangent at meets three times at , so is the identity. The construction is symmetric in . It stays in the nonsingular locus: a line through a singular point has intersection multiplicity at least two there, and therefore cannot also contain two smooth intersections counted with multiplicity.
For the nonsingular case, prove associativity by transporting a known abelian group law. The Abel-Jacobi map of a genus-one curveis bijective over an algebraic closure. Indeed, the Riemann-Roch theorem in genus one says that every divisor class of degree one has a unique effective representative consisting of one point: existence follows from , and uniqueness follows because two distinct representatives would produce a degree-one map to the projective line, impossible for a genus one curve. Subtracting gives the claimed bijection.
Any line section represents the same divisor class as , including tangencies. Thus as divisors on an algebraic curve, while the vertical line gives . HenceAddition in the Picard group is associative, soThe chord-and-tangent group law is defined over , so the group operation restricts to the -rational points.
For completeness, a singular Weierstrass equation of an elliptic curve produces the smooth-locus group of a singular Weierstrass cubic, not an elliptic curve. Over an algebraic closure, its normalization of an algebraic curve is the projective line; deleting the two preimages of a nodal crossing gives the multiplicative algebraic group, while deleting the single preimage of a cusp gives the additive group. For example, on , the coordinate , with , makes the smooth-locus law addition. On in characteristic different from two, put and , with ; the chord relation gives , so the group law is multiplication of . A nonsplit node gives the corresponding form of the multiplicative algebraic group over . These descriptions also establish the singular-case group laws.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 125 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Work first where all three coordinates are finite and the joining line is not vertical. By the chord-and-tangent group law, the third intersection of with the elliptic curve is , whose first coordinate is also . Substitution gives the monic polynomialIts roots are , counted with intersection multiplicity. Comparing its coefficients with the elementary symmetric polynomials provesThis symmetric-coordinate identity for elliptic-curve addition is an identity of rational functions. It includes tangent cases by specialization. Literally assigning finite when a point is would be meaningless; such cases must be interpreted on the projective curve. A nonsingular equation in the printed short form has characteristic different from two.
Here is how the identity yields the quadratic form for the degree of an isogeny. With , , write and . As an equation for , it becomesBoth and satisfy it, because replacing by does not change . Thus its two branches are the sum and difference maps. Their common denominator is the square of . The following divisor on an algebraic curve calculation keeps track of cancellations and exceptional points rigorously, instead of assuming degrees of displayed numerators always add.
On , equality of the two first coordinates means or . Each coordinate has a double pole at . Consequently the principal divisor identity iswhere is the diagonal and is the graph of negation. Equivalently, the two zero divisors are the inverse images of under difference and sum, exactly the two branches identified above. Their generic multiplicities are one; the divisor identity also accounts for their intersections at 2-torsion points.
For nonzero isogenies of elliptic curves with , pull this identity back by . Taking degrees of the resulting principal divisor on gives the divisor proof of the degree parallelogram law:If one map is zero, this is immediate. If , it follows from . This also proves the parallelogram law for a general Weierstrass equation of an elliptic curve in characteristic two: the same divisor identity uses the quotient by negation, even though the particular symmetric-coordinate formula above is unavailable.
Put and . Applying the parallelogram law to gives the recurrence , and hence for every integer . Its polarization is symmetric and integer-valued. For fixed , the parallelogram law makes odd and gives . Interchanging and adding proves additivity, since integers have no two-torsion. Thus has bilinearity, and is a positive quadratic form on , with whenever .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 134 2 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
On a smooth algebraic surface, distinct integral curves have nonnegative intersection numbers, because their intersection multiplicities are nonnegative. For any member of the complete linear system of a divisor, . Hence must be a component of ; otherwise the intersection would be nonnegative.
Subtracting one copy of from every effective member gives precisely the effective members linearly equivalent to . Conversely adding gives a member of . Thus is a fixed component andEquivalently, multiplication by its defining section induces an isomorphism . The original PDF has this linear-system equality; the TeX loses the bars and reduces it to an uninformative divisor identity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 139 2 i a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Write . This is the fixed part of a linear system. The movable part of a linear system is , with ; multiplication by the defining section of identifies its sections with those of . In particular , and no curve occurs in every member of . The occurrence of in the definition request is understood as .
For any integral curve , choose a member not containing . Their intersection number is a sum of nonnegative local intersection multiplicities, so . Therefore the movable divisor is nef. If , the same assertion is immediate.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 139 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Because has no fixed components, choose two members with no common component. This uses the infinitude of the algebraically closed field and avoidance of finitely many proper linear subspaces of the section space. On a smooth algebraic surface, their intersection number is the sum of local intersection multiplicities. Since , they are disjoint. A basepoint of would belong to both, so is basepoint-free.
The resulting morphism has nonconstant image since . Its image cannot be a surface: a generically finite morphism defined by would make the positive product of its degree and the degree of its image. Thus the image is a curve. Apply Stein factorization to obtain with connected fibers and , where is a smooth projective curve. There is a positive-degree line bundle on with . The projection formula for sheaves and Riemann-Roch theorem give . Therefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 4 24F a i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Let for a nonzero homogeneous linear polynomial . Because does not contain , the restriction is a nonzero section of . Its zero divisor is the hyperplane-section divisor of a projective plane curvewhere is the local intersection multiplicity; equivalently, it is the order of vanishing of at .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 24F iv Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Choose a point and project from to a line not containing . Every line through meets the quartic in four points counted with intersection multiplicity by Bézout theorem; removing the fixed intersection at leaves a generic fibre of three points. This projection from a point on a plane curve therefore defines a nonconstant morphismof degree three, so the gonality is at most three.
It cannot be one, because a degree-one morphism between smooth projective curves is an isomorphism of algebraic varieties, whereas has genus three and the projective line has genus zero. It cannot be two either: that would make a hyperelliptic curve. The canonical map of a hyperelliptic curve is not a closed embedding, but for a smooth plane quartic the canonical map of a smooth plane curve is exactly its given embedding , since . This contradiction proves