Regular function

A regular function on an open subset $U$ of a scheme $X$ is a section of ${\mathcal{O}}_X(U)$. On an affine variety it is locally a quotient of polynomial functions with a denominator that does not vanish.

On a variety, a regular function is a regular map to the affine line; the arbitrary-target regular-map concept is broader.

A global regular function is a global section of the structure sheaf of a scheme, defined on the entire scheme. These functions form its ring $H^0(X,{\mathcal{O}}_X)$. On an affine scheme this recovers the defining ring; on a positive-dimensional projective complete intersection it consists only of constants over the base field.

Over an algebraically closed field, every regular function on a nonempty irreducible projective variety is constant. Regard the function as a morphism to ${\mathbb{P}}^1$ avoiding infinity. Its graph is closed; the closedness of projection from projective space makes its image closed in ${\mathbb{P}}^1$. A proper closed subset there is finite, and an irreducible finite image is a singleton. Irreducibility is the usual variety convention; on a disconnected projective algebraic set different components may have different constants.

For $W={\mathbb{A}}_k^2\setminus \{0\}$, restriction to $D(x)$ and $D(y)$ givesThe intersection is taken in $k(x,y)$ and the equality follows from unique factorization: a reduced denominator dividing powers of both $x$ and $y$ is a unit. The inclusion $W\hookrightarrow {\mathbb{A}}^2$ induces an isomorphism on global functions but is not an isomorphism, so $W$ is not an affine variety.