Smooth locus of a variety

The smooth locus consists of points $P$ for which $\dim T_{X,P}=\dim X$. For an irreducible variety over a perfect field it is a nonempty Zariski-open subset and therefore dense.

The closed subset of points where an algebraic variety is not smooth. Over a perfect field it is equivalently the locus whose local rings are not regular local rings. A normal variety has no singular points in codimension zero or one.

Over a perfect field, a point of a variety is smooth when its local ring is a regular local ring. For an irreducible variety of dimension $n$ at a closed point, this is equivalent to its Zariski tangent space having dimension $n$. The Jacobian criterion expresses the equality as a matrix-rank condition.

A point $p$ of an irreducible variety $X$ is singular when $\dim T_{p}X>\dim X$. Equivalently, its local ring is not regular. The singular locus is the complement of the smooth locus.

A unibranch singular point of an algebraic variety on a plane algebraic curve. The ordinary cusp has local equation $y^2=x^3$ and parametrization $(x,y)=(t^2,t^3)$; its branch has a repeated tangent and a vanishing first derivative at the singular point. Higher-order cusps may have different local equations. A cuspidal cubic gives the basic projective example.

A point on $F=0$ where all first partial derivatives vanish. For a reduced hypersurface this is the Jacobian criterion; a nondegenerate quadratic leading part defines an ordinary double point.

Restrict a cubic equation to the affine line through two distinct singular points. At each point the equation and its first directional derivative vanish, so the restricted polynomial has two distinct double roots. A polynomial of degree at most three with this property is identically zero. Hence the whole line lies in the hypersurface. The multiplicity argument works in every characteristic.

For a reduced plane algebraic curve, an ordinary double point is a point whose lowest nonzero local homogeneous term has degree $2$ and factors into two distinct linear factors over an algebraic closure. The two factors give distinct tangent directions. In characteristic not $2$, $x^2+y^2+\text{higher terms}$ is an example.

If $X\subseteq {\mathbb{A}}^n$ is irreducible of dimension $d$, choose a nonzero $(n-d)$-rowed minor of a Jacobian matrix at one point of minimum tangent dimension. Its nonvanishing locus is a nonempty Zariski-open set on which the Jacobian has rank $n-d$, so every point there is smooth. Irreducibility makes every nonempty Zariski-open set dense.

For an affine variety over a perfect field, the tangent-space codimension at a point is the rank of the Jacobian matrix of defining equations. The smooth locus of a pure $d$-dimensional variety in ${\mathbb{A}}^N$ is where this rank is $N-d$.