Algebraic varieties are the central objects of study in algebraic geometry, a sub-field of mathematics. Classically, an algebraic variety is defined as the set of solutions of a system of polynomial equations over the real or complex numbers. Modern definitions generalize this concept in several different ways, while attempting to preserve the geometric intuition behind the original definition.
Conventions regarding the definition of an algebraic variety differ slightly. For example, some definitions require an algebraic variety to be irreducible, which means that it is not the union of two smaller sets that are closed in the Zariski topology. Under this definition, non-irreducible algebraic varieties are called algebraic sets. Other conventions do not require irreducibility.
The fundamental theorem of algebra establishes a link between algebra and geometry by showing that a monic polynomial (an algebraic object) in one variable with complex number coefficients is determined by the set of its roots (a geometric object) in the complex plane. Generalizing this result, Hilbert's Nullstellensatz provides a fundamental correspondence between ideals of polynomial rings and algebraic sets. Using the Nullstellensatz and related results, mathematicians have established a strong correspondence between questions on algebraic sets and questions of ring theory. This correspondence is a defining feature of algebraic geometry.
Many algebraic varieties are manifolds, but an algebraic variety may have singular points while a manifold cannot. Algebraic varieties can be characterized by their dimension. Algebraic varieties of dimension one are called algebraic curves and algebraic varieties of dimension two are called algebraic surfaces.
In the context of modern scheme theory, an algebraic variety over a field is an integral (irreducible and reduced) scheme over that field whose structure morphism is separated and of finite type.
An affine variety over an algebraically closed field is conceptually the easiest type of variety to define, which will be done in this section.
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
In mathematics, Hilbert's Nullstellensatz (German for "theorem of zeros", or more literally, "zero-locus-theorem") is a theorem that establishes a fundamental relationship between geometry and algebra. This relationship is the basis of algebraic geometry. It relates algebraic sets to ideals in polynomial rings over algebraically closed fields. This relationship was discovered by David Hilbert, who proved the Nullstellensatz in his second major paper on invariant theory in 1893 (following his seminal 1890 paper in which he proved Hilbert's basis theorem).
In algebraic geometry and commutative algebra, the Zariski topology is a topology which is primarily defined by its closed sets. It is very different from topologies which are commonly used in real or complex analysis; in particular, it is not Hausdorff. This topology was introduced primarily by Oscar Zariski and later generalized for making the set of prime ideals of a commutative ring (called the spectrum of the ring) a topological space.
In mathematics, a scheme is a mathematical structure that enlarges the notion of algebraic variety in several ways, such as taking account of multiplicities (the equations x = 0 and x2 = 0 define the same algebraic variety but different schemes) and allowing "varieties" defined over any commutative ring (for example, Fermat curves are defined over the integers). Scheme theory was introduced by Alexander Grothendieck in 1960 in his treatise "Éléments de géométrie algébrique"; one of its aims was developing the formalism needed to solve deep problems of algebraic geometry, such as the Weil conjectures (the last of which was proved by Pierre Deligne).
Singular cohomology is defined by dualizing the singular chain complex for spaces. We will study its basic properties, see how it acquires a multiplicative structure and becomes a graded commutative a
In this seminar we will study the foundations of Knot theory, which studies entanglements of closed curves in three dimensional space.
What seems like a simple subject in topology turns out to be a ri
This course is aimed to give students an introduction to the theory of algebraic curves and surfaces. In particular, it aims to develop the students' geometric intuition and combined with the basic al
This thesis is constituted of one article and three preprints that I wrote during my PhD thesis. Their common theme is the moduli theory of algebraic varieties. In the first article I study the Chow--
We establish p-adic versions of the Manin-Mumford conjecture, which states that an irreducible subvariety of an abelian variety with dense torsion has to be the translate of a subgroup by a torsion po
Inspired by the work of Lang-Trotter on the densities of primes with fixed Frobenius traces for elliptic curves defined over Q and by the subsequent generalization of Cojocaru-Davis-Silverberg-Stange