Friday, 5 March 2010

Well i'm going to retell what i've  studied from the algebraic geometry books so far.. one of my favorite book is the Basic Algebraic Geometry: Varieties in Projective Space  By Shafarevich.

Let $\mathbb{F}$ be an algebraic closed field. An algebraic curve $X$ is the set of points $(x.y)$ defined by the equation \[f(x,y)=0\]
where $f(x,y) \in \mathbb{F}[x,y]$.
When  $f(x,y)$ is an irreducible polynomial, we say $X$ is an algebraic irreducible curve.
The degree of $X$ is equal to $\text{deg}f$. The condition that $\mathbb{F}$ must be an algebraic closed field is necessary for the uniqueness of the degree of $X$.
For example the curve $(0,0)$ in the field of real numbers is defined by infinitely many equations that is $x^{2n}+y^{2n}=0$ for any positive integers $n$. For even $n$ the curve is irreducible, while whenever $n$ is odd, the curve is reducible.This confusion doesn't happen when $\mathbb{F}$ is an algebraic closed field. As we can prove it by the following very useful lemma:

 Lemma:  Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a field, given an irreducible polynomial $f \in \mathbb{F}[x,y]$. Then for any polynomial $g \in \mathbb{F}[x,y]$ which is not divisible by $f$,  the system of equations $f(x,y)=g(x,y)=0$ has only finitely many solutions.


Proof:  We view $f$ and $g$ as the element of $u[y]$, where $u$ is the field of rational function of $x$ with coefficient in $\mathbb{F}$. By Gauss Lemma, it is easy to see that $f$ remains irreducible in $u[x]$  and also $f$ and $g$ are still relatively prime in $u[y]$. Thus there exists $\lambda, \mu \in u[y]$ such that
 \[f \lambda + g \mu =1\]
Multiplying by the common denominator $a(y) \in \mathbb{F}[y]$ we will get
\[f(x,y) \lambda(x,y) + g(x,y) \mu(x,y) = a(y)\]
If $(\alpha, \beta)$ is the solution of the system of equations. Then $a(\beta)=0$, and there are only finitely many possibility of such $\beta$. Thus $\alpha$ is the root of equation $f(x, \beta)=0$, and there are also a finitely many value of them. The result follows.

Applying the lemma, let $X$ be an irreducible algebraic curve in an algebraic closed field. If there are two such equations which define  $X$ say $f(x,y)=0$ and $g(x,y)=0$, since $f(x,y)=0$ has infinitely many solution in the algebraic closed field then the systems of equations $f(x,y)=g(x,y)=0$ also has infinitely many solutions. Hence the lemma says that $f(x,y)=c g(x,y)$. Thus the two equations are essentially the same.

The same is true for arbitrary curve $X$. Suppose that its equation is $h(x,y)=0$. Since $\mathbb{F}[x,y]$ is a Unique Factorization Domain,  therefore
\[h=f_1^{k_1} f_2^{k_2} \cdots f_n^{k_n}\]
for irreducible polynomial $f_i \in \mathbb{F}[x,y]$. The points such that $h(x,y)=0$ are also such points so that $f_i(x,y)=0$ for some $i$. Let $X_i$ be a curve defined by $f_i (x,y)=0$, then we have \[X= \bigcup_{i=1}^n X_i \]
where $X_i$ is an irreducible curves.
This decomposition is called the irreducible components decomposition. Since the equation of each $X_i$ is irreducible and defined by the equation which only may differ by constant multiple, so any other equation of $X$ is also differ from $h$ by the constant multiple.

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