Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 13 4 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Write , , , and . It is the quadratic cone invariant ringwhere the involution negates both and . The invariant monomials have even total degree and are generated by ; reduction by proves the asserted presentation.
To verify the normal variety property, suppose is integral over . The same monic equation makes integral over . This polynomial ring is an integrally closed domain, so . Since belongs to the fraction field of , it is invariant under the involution, and hence belongs to . Thus is normal. The gradient of its equation is , so the Jacobian criterion shows that the origin is its only singular point of an algebraic variety. In particular is not smooth.
Take the prime Weil divisor and . We show that is not a Cartier divisor at . In the local ringits prime ideal is . The quotient has dimension of a vector space over : generate it, and they are independent since while the relation has no linear term. By Nakayama lemma, cannot be generated by one element.
On a normal variety, the ideal of an effective prime Weil divisor is the divisorial ideal of functions with order at least one along that divisor and order at least zero along every other prime Weil divisor. If were a Cartier divisor at , a local defining rational function would identify this ideal with , because an integrally closed domain is the intersection of its height-one localizations at a prime ideal inside its fraction field. That would make principal, contradicting the calculation. Therefore has a nonzero class in the local divisor class group.
Now let be any linearly equivalent Weil divisor. If were outside its support of a Weil divisor, there would be an open subset containing on which is zero. On that neighbourhood would be a principal Weil divisor, hence a Cartier divisor, which is impossible. Therefore this point is unavoidable in every representative:The argument does not assume that is effective. For comparison, because on the chart , ; the obstruction has order two, as in the Divisor class group of an A-type surface singularity.
Polynomial invariant ring 2026-10-07
For a group acting linearly on , act on the coordinate ring by . The polynomial invariant ring is the fixed subalgebra . It inherits the degree grading. Even over the complex numbers it need not be a unique factorization domain, as the quadratic cone invariant ring demonstrates.