Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 113 3 c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Two nonisomorphic punctual schemes areTheir underlying spaces each have one point, but the second has a nonzero nilpotent element and the first is reduced.
After translating their common support to the origin, punctual closed subschemes of correspond to ideals of whose radical is . Since is a principal ideal domain, each such ideal is for a unique . Its coordinate ring has basis and hence dimension . Equal dimensions force equal exponents, so and are in fact the same closed subscheme after the common coordinate choice, and in particular are isomorphic.
In , the idealsdefine distinct punctual closed subschemes supported at the origin. Both quotient rings have dimension two over , with bases and respectively. Thus they have equal-dimensional global-section spaces despite being distinct embedded closed subschemes.