Coordinate projection Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
The coordinate projections from a product send to and , respectively. For products of projective varieties, they are morphisms.
Extension of a rational map from a smooth projective curve Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Every rational map from a smooth projective curve to a projective variety extends uniquely to a morphism. At a missing point, the discrete valuation ring of the curve lets one divide homogeneous coordinates by their smallest valuation, leaving regular coordinates of which at least one is a unit.
High ample twist is very ample Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
If is an ample line bundle on a projective variety and is any line bundle, then is very ample for all sufficiently large integers . Taking to be trivial also makes very ample.
Write a big real Cartier divisor on an integral projective variety as , with ample and effective real Cartier. Every curve outside has . Therefore curves negative against lie in finitely many support components of codimension one. On a projective scheme use componentwise bigness on a projective scheme and collect the supports on its finitely many integral components; codimension one is taken in the relevant component.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 13 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Use the dense standard affine charts. Their product iswhich is also a dense affine chart of . The identification of these charts gives a birational isomorphism between the two projective varieties.
To distinguish them, calculate their divisor class groups explicitly. Let be a coordinate hyperplane. Its complement is , whose coordinate ring is a unique factorization domain. Any Weil divisor on restricts on this chart to a principal Weil divisor; subtract that principal Weil divisor on , leaving a Weil divisor supported on . Thus generates . If , then has zero Weil divisor on . A reduced fraction in a unique factorization domain with zero orders at every prime Weil divisor must be a unit, so . It follows that . We have proved
In the product, let and be coordinate hyperplanes in the factors and putThe complement of is , again with a unique factorization domain as its coordinate ring. The same restriction-and-subtraction argument says that generate the divisor class group. Ifthen on that affine chart has neither zeros nor poles along any prime Weil divisor. Unique factorization makes a unit of , hence a constant. It follows that . ThereforeBoth spaces are smooth varieties, so their divisor class groups also equal their Picard groups. An isomorphism preserves the divisor class group; and are not isomorphic. Thus the spaces are birational but not isomorphic. The assumptions ensure that both boundary prime Weil divisors actually occur.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 13 5 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For a smooth projective curve , let be its geometric genus, let be a canonical divisor, and write for the dimension of a vector space of the Riemann-Roch space. The Riemann-Roch theorem saysfor every divisor on an algebraic curve on .
Here is the cohomological proof of Riemann-Roch for curves. At a closed point , the local ring is a discrete valuation ring. A local uniformizer shows that increasing the allowed pole order by one gives the short exact sequence of sheavesThe last term is a length-one skyscraper sheaf; its precise identification with is noncanonical, but its sheaf cohomology has and . All the relevant groups of sheaf cohomology are finite-dimensional because is a projective variety, and coherent sheaf cohomology above degree one vanishes on a algebraic curve. The long exact sequence in sheaf cohomology therefore givesSince is an algebraically closed field, every closed point has degree one. Iterating this identity for both positive and negative coefficients of provesEvery global regular function on a projective variety which is an irreducible variety is constant; hence and .
Finally apply Serre duality for a smooth projective curve:Taking dimensions of a vector space and inserting this in the Euler characteristic of a coherent sheaf identity proves the displayed Riemann-Roch theorem. The substantial inputs from sheaf cohomology are finiteness and vanishing for coherent sheaves on a projective curve, and Serre duality; the change of Euler characteristic of a coherent sheaf is proved directly by the point exact sequence. In particular the argument handles negative as well as effective divisors on an algebraic curve.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 18 4 v Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For the curve generation criterion for an abelian variety, first suppose and an irreducible Weil divisor avoids . The preceding part gives , so and . A nonzero effective divisor cannot have this property: if is an ample line bundle and , then the intersection product of Cartier divisors is positive, whereas an algebraically trivial line bundle has zero intersection with every curve. The latter follows from constancy of degree along a connected family defining algebraic equivalence; the former is the positive projective degree of after replacing by a very ample power. This contradiction proves that meets every irreducible Weil divisor.
Conversely suppose . Fix , so . Use the permitted fiber theorem to choose a morphism of varieties with . This morphism is nonconstant because is proper. Choose an affine neighborhood of . The irreducible image has positive dimension, so its intersection with does too; some regular function on is nonconstant on this intersection. Then is a nonconstant rational function on , regular on .
The pole divisor avoiding a fiber construction applies: its pole Weil divisor is nonzero. Indeed on the smooth, hence normal, projective variety , a rational function with no codimension-one poles extends to a global regular function; every global regular function on a connected projective variety is constant. Every pole component lies outside and hence avoids . Therefore is an irreducible Weil divisor disjoint from , and in particular from . This proves the converse using precisely the fiber fact allowed in the question, without requiring a projective target . The criterion is
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 134 1 iii b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
We prove (b)(a) by induction on dimension, using the independently proved (c)(a) argument in the next section. Work on an integral projective variety of dimension . The hypothesis is inherited by all its integral closed subvarieties. Induction therefore makes ample on every strictly lower-dimensional closed reduced subvariety, and hence on every proper closed subscheme of dimension less than , by ampleness on reduced components.
Choose an effective Cartier divisor which is a very ample hyperplane section of . Then is ample. We need a vanishing statement uniform in extra positive -twists:Here is a justification using Castelnuovo–Mumford regularity. Embed by . For each of the finitely many positive cohomology degrees , Serre vanishing for the ample bundle makes vanish for . Thus the pushed-forward sheaf is zero-regular. Persistence of regularity makes it -regular for every , giving exactly the displayed vanishing. This is the uniform Serre vanishing for two ample twists lemma. It does not assume that is ample on .
Apply the divisor restriction exact sequence to with twists . For , both neighbouring cohomology groups on vanish, soFor a fixed , sufficiently large kills the right-hand cohomology by Serre vanishing for on . The higher cohomology vanishing from an ample hyperplane restriction argument gives for all . ConsequentlyThis step is essential: divergence of a polynomial does not by itself prove that its top-degree coefficient is positive.
For large enough, . Evaluation at a closed point has a one-dimensional target, so its kernel contains a nonzero section vanishing there. We have obtained condition (c) on . Lower-dimensional subvarieties already have the same property by induction, so the next section's implication (c)(a) applies. ThusFor , higher groups with vanish automatically and the same evaluation argument starts the induction. The regularity facts used above are stated in the Stacks Project, regularity lemmas.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 134 1 iii c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
We prove (c)(a) by induction on dimension. It suffices to work on an integral projective variety . By induction, is ample on every lower-dimensional integral subvariety, and hence on every lower-dimensional closed subscheme by ampleness on reduced components.
Apply (c) to itself. The nonzero section of has a nonempty zero divisor . Because is integral, this is an effective Cartier divisor and . Its support has dimension less than , so , and therefore , is ample. Part (ii) makes semiample, hence some positive multiple of is basepoint-free.
Let be the resulting Kodaira map, with . No fibre can have positive dimension: such a projective fibre contains an integral projective curve , on which has degree zero. But the assumed nonzero section of some cannot vanish anywhere, since its nonempty effective divisor would have positive degree. This contradicts (c).
Thus has zero-dimensional fibres. A proper quasi-finite morphism is a finite morphism. The finite pullback of an ample line bundle is ample, so and then are ample. This provesThe fibre argument proves the semiample and curve-positive ampleness criterion. It also explains why testing only existence of a nonzero section, without requiring a zero, would be insufficient: the trivial bundle on a positive-dimensional projective variety has a nowhere-vanishing section.