Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 20 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
First use the canonical map to obtain the embedding. Its canonical divisor has degree six and . Over an algebraically closed ground field, every effective degree-two divisor on an algebraic curve satisfies : a second section would give a nonconstant rational function with poles bounded by , hence a map of degree at most two. Degree one would make rational, and degree two would make it hyperelliptic, both excluded here.
The Riemann-Roch theorem now givesThus the complete linear system of divisors separates every pair of points and every tangent direction, including the tests . By the length-two criterion for a very ample linear system, it is a very ample linear system. Consequently the canonical map embeds in , with degree of a projective curve six. Its image is a nondegenerate projective variety, since the four canonical sections are linearly independent.
The space of homogeneous quadrics in four variables has dimension ten, while the Riemann-Roch theorem givesRestriction therefore has a nonzero kernel, giving a quadric containing . This quadric is irreducible: a reducible quadric is a union of two planes, or a double plane, and an integral curve lying in it would lie in a plane, contradicting nondegeneracy.
Similarly, homogeneous cubics form a twenty-dimensional space, whereasThere are at least five independent cubics vanishing on . The multiples of by linear forms give only four dimensions, so choose a cubic vanishing on which is not divisible by .
The polynomials are a regular sequence, hence their intersection is a projective complete intersection of pure dimension one and degree . It contains , which already has degree six. The unmixedness of a complete intersection excludes embedded components. Equal degrees force to be the only irreducible component and force multiplicity one at its generic point. By generic reducedness with no embedded components, this makes reduced, so as schemes. We have provedThis is a canonical genus-four curve as a quadric-cubic intersection. The quadric may be smooth or a cone; the argument does not require it to be smooth. The same construction descends over the ground field when the curve is geometrically nonhyperelliptic, since the restriction maps and canonical embedding are defined there.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 20 5 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A line bundle is a globally generated line bundle when the evaluation mapis surjective. Equivalently, its global sections span each fibre of the line bundle; locally at every point, some section is a generator.
Choose a finite generating family . On the open set where generates , the ratios are regular functions, giving a morphism of schemes into the standard chart of projective space. The ratios obey the usual transition rules on overlaps, so these chart maps glue toThe tuple is computed using any local trivialization of ; changing that trivialization multiplies all entries by the same invertible function. The construction has and pulls back the coordinate sections to the chosen .
There is a finiteness qualification for an arbitrary : global generation alone need not provide such a finite family. It does if is quasi-compact, since the open sets on which individual sections generate have a finite subcover. Without that hypothesis, take and let restrict to on each component. This line bundle is globally generated, but any global sections have a common zero on a component with . Thus this is a globally generated line bundle without finite generators. This is finite global generation on a quasi-compact scheme. The finite-family construction is automatic in the projective case asked next.
For projective nonsingular , put . The length-two criterion for a very ample linear system says that is a closed immersion precisely when, after extending to an algebraic closure, separates distinct points and tangent directions. Equivalently, the evaluationis surjective for every length-two geometric closed subscheme . Two distinct points give point separation; a nonreduced length-two subscheme supported at one point gives separation of a direction in the Zariski tangent space. For the complete space , this says exactly that is a very ample line bundle. For a chosen smaller , it is the chosen linear system of divisors which must be a very ample linear system; mere global generation is insufficient.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 4 20F i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For a smooth projective algebraic curve, a linear system of divisors comes from a finite-dimensional space . A basis of sections defines , using any local trivialization; a common scalar change does not alter the projective point. A base-point-free linear system makes this defined everywhere, and . Pulling back a hyperplane gives the zero divisor of a linear combination of the sections, an element of the original system.
A system with base divisor can instead define a map after removing , but its hyperplane pullbacks have class . Thus base-point-freeness is needed for the stated original-system property. For a closed immersion, the system must also separate distinct points and tangent directions; equivalently it is a very ample linear system. On a smooth curve the latter tangent condition is separation of the length-two subscheme at each point.