ALGEBRAIC VARIETIES AND SOME INVARIANTS

AGUS L. SOENJAYA
1
Abstract. In this exposition, we will study algebraic varieties and some of their
invariants, which are useful in classifying them.
Contents
1. Ane Varieties 1
2. Projective Varieties 6
3. Dimension 12
4. Hilbert Polynomial 14
5. Degree 16
6. Conclusion 18
References 19
1. Affine Varieties
Algebraic geometry is concerned with the study of algebraic sets, i.e. with the set of
solutions of polynomial equations in several variables. To study this formally, we begin
by xing the ground eld k and making the following denitions.
Denition 1.1. The ane space of dimension n over k is dened by
A
n
:= (A)
n
k
:= k
n
= {(a
1
, . . . , a
n
) | a
i
k} (1.1)
Denition 1.2. Let T k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
]. The zero locus of T is the set
V(T) := {p A
n
| f(p) = 0 for all f T} (1.2)
Denition 1.3. A subset Y A
n
is an ane variety if there exists a subset T
k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
] such that Y = V(T)
It is not necessary to consider arbitrary subsets T and we can replace T by J := (T),
the ideal generated by T. Moreover, since k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
] is a Noetherian ring, there are
nitely many polynomials f
1
, . . . , f
m
k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
] such that J = (f
1
, . . . , f
m
).
Denition 1.4. An ane variety Y is irreducible if there exists no decomposition
Y = Y
1
Y
2
into proper ane varieties Y
1
, Y
2
. Otherwise X is called reducible
Next, we will consider a topology on A
n
.
Lemma 1.5. The following holds:
(1) V(0) = A
n
and V(A
n
) = .
(2) I J =V(J) V(I).
(3) V(J
1
J
2
) = V(J
1
) V(J
2
).
(4) V
_

_
=

V(J

).
1
2 AGUS L. SOENJAYA
Proof. We will only prove (3) which is not so immediate.
Let p V(J
1
) V(J
2
). WLOG, suppose p V(J
1
). Then for all g J
1
J
2
, g(p) = 0
so that p V(J
1
J
2
). Conversely, let p V(J
1
) V(J
2
). Then there exist f J
1
and g J
2
with f(p) = 0 and g(p) = 0 so that fg(p) = 0. However, fg J
1
J
2
, and
hence p V(J
1
J
2
).
By the above lemma, the set of algebraic varieties forms a topology on A
n
, called
the Zariski topology.
Proposition 1.6. For a closed set V A
n
, the following are equivalent:
(1) V is irreducible.
(2) For any two open sets U
1
, U
2
= of V , we have U
1
U
2
= .
(3) Every nonempty open set U V is dense in V
Proof. Equivalence of (1) and (2) follows from the following.
U
1
U
2
= (V U
1
) (V U
2
) = V
Equivalence of (2) and (3) follows by denition (a subset U V is dense if and only if
it meets every nonempty open subset of V ).
Next, we introduce the following ideal.
Denition 1.7. Let X A
n
be an ane variety. Dene the ideal
I(X) := {f k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
] | f(p) = 0 for all p X} (1.3)
Proposition 1.8. The following holds:
(1) X Y I(X) I(Y ).
(2) For every subset X A
n
, we have X V(I(X)). Equality holds if and only if
X is an ane variety.
(3) If J A is an ideal, then J I(V(J)).
The following theorem, Hilberts Nullstellensatz, is fundamental in relating the alge-
bra and geometry. The proof can be found in [6].
Theorem 1.9 (Hilberts Nullstellensatz). Let k be an algebraically closed eld. Then
the following hold:
(1) Every maximal ideal m k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
] is of the form m = (x
1
a
1
, . . . , x
n
a
n
),
for some point (a
1
, . . . , a
n
) A
n
.
(2) If J k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
] is a proper ideal, then V(J) = .
(3) For every ideal J k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
], we have I(V(J)) =

J.
It follows from the above that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the
radical ideals J k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
] and the ane varieties of A
n
.
Next, we will study some important functions on an ane variety. Subsequently, let
V denotes an ane variety in A
n
.
Denition 1.10. A polynomial function on V is a map f : V k such that there is
a polynomial F k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
] with f(p) = F(p) for all p V .
Note that the polynomial F is not uniquely determined by the values it takes on V .
In particular, for F, G k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
], we have (F G)|
V
= 0 F G I(V ). This
motivates us for the following denition.
Denition 1.11 (Coordinate Ring). The coordinate ring of V is dened by
k[V ] := k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
]/I(V ) (1.4)
ALGEBRAIC VARIETIES AND SOME INVARIANTS 3
Next, we will consider mapping between algebraic varieties. In the following, let
V A
n
and W A
m
be closed sets, and x
i
(1 i n) and y
j
(1 j m) be the
coordinate functions on A
n
and A
m
respectively.
Denition 1.12. A map f : V W is a polynomial map if there are polynomials
F
1
, . . . , F
m
k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
] such that
f(p) = (F
1
(p), . . . , F
m
(p)) W A
m
(1.5)
for all points p V .
Lemma 1.13. Let y
1
, . . . , y
m
be the coordinate functions on A
m
. A map f : V W
is a polynomial map if and only if f
j
:= y
j
f k[V ] for j = 1, . . . , m.
Proof. Composing f with y
j
gives the projection onto the j-th coordinate:
V W A
m
A
1
f
f
j
y
j
Let f
j
= y
j
f. Then if f is a polynomial map, we have f
j
(p) = F
j
(p) for some
F
j
k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
]. Thus f
j
is a polynomial map, and hence f
j
k[V ].
On the other hand, if f
j
= y
j
f is a polynomial map for all j, then by denition
there are polynomials F
1
, . . . , F
m
with f(p) = (F
1
(p), . . . , F
m
(p)) for all p V .
Now let f : V W be a polynomial map. For g k[W], we dene f

(g) := g f:
V W
A
1
f
f

(g)
g
Since g is a polynomial function, g f is also a polynomial function. We have a map
f

: k[W] k[V ]
g f

(g) = g f
Note also that if f : V W and g : W X are polynomial maps, then
(g f)

= f

: k[X] k[V ]
Observe that f

is a k-algebra homomorphism. Hence, every polynomial map f : V

W induces a k-algebra homomorphism f

: k[W] k[V ]. The following proposition is

a converse to this.
Proposition 1.14. If : k[W] k[V ] is a k-algebra homomorphism, then there exists
a unique polynomial map f : V W such that = f

.
Proof. Suppose W A
m
, and let y
1
, . . . , y
m
be the coordinate functions on A
m
. Then
k[W] = k[y
1
, . . . , y
m
]/I(W) = k[y
1
, . . . , y
m
]
where y
i
= y
i
+I(W). Set f
1
:= (y
i
) k[V ] for i = 1, . . . , m. Then
f := (f
1
, . . . , f
m
) : V A
m
4 AGUS L. SOENJAYA
is a polynomial map (by Lemma 1.13). First we show that f(V ) W. Suppose
G = G(y
1
, . . . , y
m
) I(W). Then we have G(y
1
, . . . , y
m
) = 0 and so
G(f
1
, . . . , f
m
) = G((y
1
), . . . , (y
m
)) = (G(y
1
, . . . , y
m
)) = 0
which implies that f(V ) W. Next, we show = f

. The elements y
1
, . . . , y
m
generate
the k-algebra k[W], and so it suces to show (y
i
) = f

(y
i
) = f
i
, which is precisely
the denition of f
i
. This also shows that f = (f
1
, . . . , f
m
) is the unique polynomial
map with = f

.
The following corollary follows immediately.
Corollary 1.15. There is a bijection between the set of polynomial maps from V to W
and the set of k-algebra homomorphisms from k[W] to k[V ], given by f f

.
Denition 1.16. A polynomial map f : V W is an isomorphism if there exists a
polynomial map g : W V such that f g = id
W
and g f = id
V
.
Corollary 1.17. A polynomial map f : V W is an isomorphism of varieties if and
only if f

: k[W] k[V ] is an isomorphism of k-algebras.

Example 1.18. Consider the parabola V = V(y x
2
) A
2
and the parametrization
f : A
1
V,
t (t, t
2
)
The projection p : A
2
A
1
to the rst coordinate restricted to V gives an inverse map.
Thus f is an isomorphism.
This can also be seen by considering the map f

: k[V ] k[A
1
] since
f

: k[V ]

= k[x] k[A
1
]

= k[t]
x t
is an isomorphism.
We will now investigate further the eld of fractions of k[V ].
Denition 1.19. The function eld of V is the eld of fractions of k[V ] and is denoted
by k(V ). Elements of k(V ) are called rational functions on V .
Denition 1.20. Let f k(V ) and p V . The rational function f is regular at p if
there is a representation f = g/h with h(p) = 0.
The domain of denition is dened to be the set
dom(f) := {p V | f is regular at p}
For every polynomial function h k[V ], we also dene the open set V
h
:= {p
V | h(p) = 0}. We have the following.
Theorem 1.21. For a rational function f k(V ), the following hold:
(1) dom(f) is open in V .
(2) dom(f) = V f k[V ].
(3) dom(f) V
h
f k[V ][h
1
].
Proof. (1) For f k(V ), dene the ideal of denominators of f by
D
f
:= {h k[V ] | fh k[V ]} k[V ]
ALGEBRAIC VARIETIES AND SOME INVARIANTS 5
By denition, D
f
= {h k[V ] | there is a representation f = g/h} {0}, and
V \dom(f) = {p V | h(p) = 0 for all h D
f
} = V(D
f
)
so that dom(f) is open in V .
(2) We have dom(f) = V if and only if V(D
f
) = . By Hilberts Nullstellensatz,
this is equivalent to 1 D
f
, i.e. f k[V ].
(3) We have dom(f) V
h
if and only if h vanishes on V(D
f
). By Hilberts
Nullstellensatz, this is equivalent to h
n
D
f
for some n 1, which implies
f = g/h
n
k[V ][h
1
].

Part (2) of the above says that the polynomials are precisely the rational functions
that are everywhere regular, so that we will refer to polynomial functions as regular
functions.
Often, we also need to consider maps on the ane variety V which are not everywhere
dened.
Denition 1.22. We dene the following:
(1) A rational map f : V A
n
is an n-tuple f = (f
1
, . . . , f
n
) of rational functions
f
1
, . . . , f
n
k(V ). The map f is regular at point p if all f
i
are regular at
p. The domain of denition, dom(f), is the set of all regular points of f, i.e.
dom(f) =

n
i=1
dom(f
i
).
(2) For an ane variety W A
n
, a rational map f : V W is a rational map
f : V A
n
such that f(p) W for all regular points p dom(f).
It follows from Theorem 1.21 that the domain of denition of a rational map is a
nonempty open subset of V .
We note that the composition of two rational maps cannot always be dened in a
meaningful way, as the following shows.
Example 1.23. Dene the rational maps f : A
1
A
2
by x (x, 0), and g : A
2
A
1
by (x, y) x/y. Then the composition is nowhere dened since f(A
1
) dom(g) = .
We introduce the following notion to study the map for which the composition is
dened.
Denition 1.24. A rational map f : V W is dominant if f(dom(f)) is a Zariski
dense subset of W.
Denition 1.25. For a rational map f : V W and a subset U W, dene the
inverse image of U under f by
f
1
(U) := {p dom(f) | f(p) U}
Now suppose f : V W is dominant, and that g : W A
1
is a rational map.
Theorem 1.21 says that dom(g) is a nonempty open subset of W, and by the continuity
of f, f
1
(dom(g)) is an open subset of dom(f). Then the composition g f : V A
1
can be dened on the dense open subset f
1
(dom(g)) V . We also have the following.
Theorem 1.26. For irreducible ane varieties V and W,
(1) Every dominant rational map f : V W denes a k-linear homomorphism
f

: k(W) k(V ).
(2) Conversely, if : k(W) k(V ) is a k-linear homomorphism, then there exists
a unique dominant rational map f : V W with = f

.
6 AGUS L. SOENJAYA
(3) If f : V W and g : W X are dominant, then g f : V X is also
dominant, and (g f)

= f

.
Proof. First we prove (1) and (3). For a rational map f : V W with corresponding
homomorphism f

: k[W] k[V ], we have

f

(g) = 0 f(dom(f)) V (g) for all g k[W]

It follows that f

: k[W] k(V ) is injective if and only if f is dominant. Hence if

f is dominant, we can extend f

to a homomorphism f

: k(W) k(V ) by setting

f

(g/h) = f

(g)/f

(h). Also note that if f : V W and g : W X are dominant,

then g f : V X is also dominant.
The proof of (2) is similar to the proof of Proposition 1.14. It remains to show that f
is dominant. Since f

= , we have f

|
k[W]
= |
k[W]
. Since is a eld homomorphism,
is injective, so f

|
k[W]
: k[W] k(V ) is also injective. Hence f is dominant.
We can now say something about the open subset of an ane variety.
Denition 1.27. Let U
1
and U
2
be an irreducible open subset of an ane varieties V
and W respectively.
(1) A morphism f : U
1
W is a rational map f : V W with U
1
dom(f), i.e.
f is regular at every point p U
1
.
(2) A morphism f : U
1
U
2
is a morphism f : U
1
W with f(U
1
) U
2
.
(3) An isomorphism of open subset of an ane variety is a morphism f : U
1
U
2
such that there is a morphism g : U
2
U
1
, with g f = id
U
1
and f g = id
U
2
.
For any two irreducible ane varieties V and W, Theorem 1.21 then says that the
morphisms between V and W are precisely the polynomial maps.
2. Projective Varieties
In this section, we will study the projective varieties. Let V be a nite-dimensional
vector space over the eld k. Consider the following equivalence relation on V \ {0}:
u v there exists k with u = v.
Denition 2.1. The projective space, P(V ), associated with V is dened by
P(V ) := V \ {0} /
In particular, taking V = k
n+1
, we dene P
n
:= P
n
k
:= P(k
n+1
).
Recall that a homogeneous polynomial of degree d is a polynomial whose monomials
are all of degree d. In particular, the fact that
f(x
0
, . . . , x
n
) =
d
f(x
0
, . . . , x
n
)
makes the zero set of f,
V(f) := {(x
0
: . . . : x
n
) P
n
| f(x
0
, . . . , x
n
) = 0} P
n
well-dened. We can now introduce the projective variety.
Denition 2.2. A projective variety is a subset V P
n
such that there is a set of
homogeneous polynomials {f
i
}
iI
k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
] with
V = V({f
i
}
iI
) = {P P
n
| f
i
(P) = 0 for some i I}
Below are some examples of projective variety.
ALGEBRAIC VARIETIES AND SOME INVARIANTS 7
Example 2.3. The hyperplane at innity is a projective variety given by
H
n
= {(x
0
: x
1
: . . . : x
n
) P
n
Example 2.4. The image of the map
: P
1
P
1
P
3
((x
0
: x
1
), (y
0
: y
1
)) (x
0
y
0
: x
0
y
1
: x
1
y
0
: x
1
y
1
)
is given by the quadric
Q := {(z
0
: z
1
: z
2
: z
3
) P
3
| z
0
z
3
z
1
z
2
= 0}
Note that there are two families of lines on Q, one is given by the family of lines
(P
1
{p}), and the other is given by the family of lines ({p}P
1
), as p runs through
the points of P
1
. Each of these families is called a ruling of Q. Observe that any two
lines in the same ruling are disjoint, while any two lines in dierent rulings intersect.
We will now introduce some algebraic concepts.
Denition 2.5 (Graded Ring). A graded ring is a ring R together with a decomposition
into abelian groups
R =

d0
R
d
(2.1)
such that R
d
R
e
R
d+e
for all d, e. The elements of R
d
are called the homogeneous
elements of degree d.
An important example would be the polynomial ring
S = k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
] =

d0
k
d
[x
0
, . . . , x
n
] (2.2)
where k
d
[x
0
, . . . , x
n
] := {f k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
] | f is homogeneous of degree d} {0}.
Denition 2.6. A homogeneous ideal I in a graded ring S is an ideal which satises
I =

d0
(I R
d
) (2.3)
It is clear from this that an ideal I is homogeneous if and only if every f I has a
unique decomposition
f = f
0
+. . . +f
n
where f
i
I is homogeneous element of degree i.
The following proposition is immediate from the denition.
Proposition 2.7. For an ideal I in a graded ring R, we have
(1) I is homogeneous if and only if it can be generated by homogeneous elements.
(2) The sum, product, intersection and radical of homogeneous ideals are also ho-
mogeneous ideals.
Then as in the case of ane variety, if T is a set of homogeneous polynomials and
(T) is the homogeneous ideal generated by T, then we have
V (T) = V (f
1
, . . . , f
k
)
for nitely many homogeneous generators f
1
, . . . , f
k
of (T).
Similarly, the projective varieties form a topology (called the Zariski topology) on
P
n
.
8 AGUS L. SOENJAYA
Denition 2.8. A quasi-projective variety is an open subset of a projective variety.
We also introduce the following ideal.
Denition 2.9. Let V P
n
be a projective variety. Dene the ideal
I(V ) := {f k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
] | f(p) = 0 for all p V, f is homogeneous} (2.4)
Now, to formulate the projective Nullstellensatz, we note the following. As in the
ane case, V((1)) = , but there is also another homogeneous ideal
m := (x
0
, . . . , x
n
) =

d1
k
d
[x
0
, . . . , x
n
]
for which we also have V(m) = . The ideal m is called the irrelevant ideal.
Denition 2.10. Let J be a homogeneous ideal. The set V
a
(J) := V(J) A
n
is called
the ane cone over the projective variety V(J) P
n
.
Theorem 2.11 (Projective Nullstellensatz). Let k be an algebraically closed eld. Then
for a homogeneous ideal J we have the following
(1) V(J) =

J (x
0
, . . . , x
n
).
(2) If V(J) = then I(V(J)) =

J.
Proof. (1) We have
V(J) = V
a
(J) {0}

J (x
0
, . . . , x
n
)
where the second equivalence follows from the ane Nullstellensatz.
(2) Suppose V(J) = . Then
f I(V(J)) f I(V
a
(J))
n 1, f
n
J f

J
using the ane Nullstellensatz and the following fact: If f =

f
i
is a poly-
nomial with homogeneous components f
i
, then f(x
0
, . . . , x
n
) = 0 for all if
and only if f
i
(x
0
, . . . , x
n
) = 0 for all i.

Similarly it follows that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the homoge-

neous radical ideals J k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
] and the projective varieties V P
n
, where the
irrelevant ideal corresponds to the empty set.
Next, we consider the covering of P
n
be ane sets, P
n
= U
0
. . . U
n
, where
U
i
:= {(x
0
: . . . : x
n
) P
n
| x
i
= 0}. For every open set U
i
, we have a bijection
j
i
: U
i
A
n
(x
0
: . . . : x
i
: . . . : x
n
)
_
x
0
x
1
, . . . ,
x
i1
x
i
,
x
i+1
x
i
, . . . ,
x
n
x
i
_
The Zariski topology on P
n
induces a subspace topology on U
i
, and A
n
is equipped with
the Zariski topology introduced in previous section. We have the following proposition.
Proposition 2.12. The map j
i
: U
i
A
n
is a homeomorphism.
Proof. For simplicity, we take i = 0. Other values of i follow similarly. We will show
that both j
1
0
and j
0
map closed sets to closed sets.
ALGEBRAIC VARIETIES AND SOME INVARIANTS 9
The closed subsets of U
i
and A
n
are respectively dened by polynomials in the
following rings:
S
h
:= {f k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
] | f is homogeneous },
A := k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
]
Consider the maps between these rings dened by the dehomogenization map
: S
h
A,
(f) := f(1, x
1
, . . . , x
n
)
and homogenization map
: A S
h
,
(g) := x
deg g
0
g
_
x
1
x
0
, . . . ,
x
n
x
0
_
which satisfy (g) = g.
Any closed subset of U
0
has the form X = XU
0
, where X P
n
is the closure of X
in P
n
. Since X is a projective variety, there is a nite subset T S
h
with X = V(T),
and j
0
(X) = V((T)).
Any closed subset of A
n
has the form W = V(T

) for a nite subset T

A, and
j
1
0
(W) = V((T

)) U
0
. Therefore j
0
and j
1
0
maps closed subsets to closed subsets
as follows
j
0
: V(T) U
0
V((T)),
j
1
0
: V((T

)) U
0
V(T

)
showing that j
0
is a homeomorphism.
Any projective variety X P
n
has a covering
X = X
0
. . . X
n
, X
i
:= X U
i
Using the map j
i
dened above, we can identify U
i
with A
n
, so that the X
i
may be
regarded as ane varieties. Such covering by ane varieties are called the standard
covering of X. The following follows immediately by Proposition 2.12.
Corollary 2.13. The map X X
0
= X U
0
denes a bijection between the set of
projective varieties in P
n
and the set of ane varieties in A
n
.
The above corollary implies that we can consider ane varieties as quasi-projective
varieties. The notion of quasi-projective variety would be the most general concept we
will consider here.
Next, we would like to dene functions on projective varieties V P
n
. Note that
homogeneous polynomials do not determine well-dened functions on P
n
, but if f and
g are both homogeneous polynomials of degree d, then
f(x
0
, . . . , x
n
)
g(x
0
, . . . , x
n
)
=

d
f(x
0
, . . . , x
n
)

d
f(x
0
, . . . , x
n
)
=
f(x
0
, . . . , x
n
)
g(x
0
, . . . , x
n
)
and so the quotient is a well-dened function on V . We dene the following.
Denition 2.14. Let V P
n
be an irreducible projective variety. The function eld
of V is the set
k(V ) :=
_
f
g
| f, g k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
] homogeneous, deg f = deg g, g I(V )
_
/ (2.5)
10 AGUS L. SOENJAYA
where
f
g

f

fg

gf

I(V )
The elements of k(V ) are called rational functions
Note that with the natural operations, k(V ) is really a eld. We will now dene the
homogeneous coordinate ring.
Denition 2.15. Let V P
n
be an irreducible projective variety with ane cone
V
a
A
n+1
. Dene the homogeneous coordinate ring of V to be the set
S(V ) := k[V
a
] := k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
]/I(V )
The ring S(V ) is equipped with the structure of a graded ring as follows
S(V ) =

d0
S
d
(V ),
where S
d
(V ) := {f S(V ) | f k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
] is homogeneous with deg f = d} {0}.
We will now study the regular functions on open subsets of V .
Denition 2.16. A rational function f k(V ) is called regular at a point p if there
is a representation f =
g
h
with h(p) = 0.
Denition 2.17. The domain of denition of f k(V ), dom(f), is the set of all points
where f is regular.
Denition 2.18. Let V and W be irreducible projective or ane varieties.
(1) A rational map f : V P
m
on V is given by f(p) = (f
0
(p) : . . . : f
m
(p))
for rational functions f
0
, . . . , f
m
k(V ). The domain of denition is given by
dom(f) :=

m
i=1
dom(f
i
).
(2) A rational map f : V P
m
is regular at a point p if there is a representation
f = (f
0
: . . . : f
m
) such that
(a) For 1 i m, the function f
i
is regular at p.
(b) There exists some i for which f
i
(p) = 0.
(3) A rational map f : V W P
m
is a rational map f : V P
m
with
f(dom(f)) W.
Denition 2.19. Let V
1
, V
2
be irreducible projective or ane varieties containing open
subsets U
1
, U
2
respectively.
(1) A morphism f : U
1
U
2
is a rational map f : V
1
V
2
with U
1
dom(f)
and f(U
1
) U
2
.
(2) A morphism f : U
1
U
2
is an isomorphism if there is a morphism g : U
2
U
1
with g f = id
U
1
and f g = id
U
2
.
Example 2.20. Consider the rational normal curve of degree n parametrized by
: P
1
P
n
(t
0
: t
1
) (t
n
0
: t
n1
0
t
1
: . . . : t
n
1
).
Since we can write
(t
0
: t
1
) =
_
_
t
0
t
1
_
n
:
_
t
0
t
1
_
n1
: . . . : 1
_
=
_
1 : . . . :
_
t
1
t
0
_
n
_
the map is rational and everywhere regular.
ALGEBRAIC VARIETIES AND SOME INVARIANTS 11
We will now introduce the notion of birational equivalence. Let V and W be
irreducible quasi-projective varieties.
Denition 2.21. A rational map f : V W is called birational if there is a rational
map g : W V with f g = id
W
and g f = id
V
.
Denition 2.22. Two varieties V and W are said to be birationally equivalent if there
is a birational map f : V W.
Theorem 2.23. For a rational map f : V W, the following statements are equiv-
alent:
(1) f is birational.
(2) f is dominant and f

: k(W) k(V ) is an isomorphism.

(3) There are open sets V
0
V and W
0
W such that the restriction f|
V
0
: V
0

W
0
is an isomorphism.
Proof. The equivalence of (1) and (2) is proved in a similar way as in Theorem 1.26.
To show (3) (1), note that f|
V
0
has inverse g : W
0
V
0
and by denition
g : W V is a rational map. Then g f : V V and f g : W W are rational
maps which are the identity maps on V
0
and W
0
respectively. Since V
0
and W
0
are
dense, it follows that g f = id
V
and f g = id
W
.
We will now show (1) (3). Let g : W V be a rational map inverse to f. We set
V

:= dom(f) and W

= dom(g). Then := f|
V
: V

W and := g|
W
: W

V
are morphisms. Since we have an equality of rational maps, f g = id
W
, we have
((p)) = p for all p
1
(V

). (2.6)
Then we have the following commutative diagram:
W V W

1
(V

) V

W
W

id
W
g f
Let V
0
:=
1
(
1
(V

)) and W
0
:=
1
(
1
(W

)). If q V
0
, then (q)
1
(V

), and
so by (2.6), we have (((q))) = (q). Hence (q) W

and (q)
1
(
1
(W

)) =
W
0
, so that : V
0
W
0
is a morphism. Similarly : W
0
V
0
is a morphism, and
they are inverse of each other.
We end this section with some examples.
Example 2.24. Rational maps often appear as projections of projective spaces. The
map
: P
n
P
n1
,
(x
0
: . . . : x
n
) (x
1
: . . . : x
n
)
is a rational map, and is dened everywhere except at the point p
0
= (1 : 0 : . . . : 0).
By identifying P
n1
with V(x
0
) in P
n
, for a point p = p
0
, the image (p) is given by
the intersection of the line p
0
p with the plane P
n1
.
12 AGUS L. SOENJAYA
Example 2.25. A birational map from P
2
to P
2
is called a Cremona transformation.
An example would be
: P
2
P
2
(x
0
: x
1
: x
2
)
_
1
x
0
:
1
x
1
:
1
x
2
_
which is birational, with =
1
, and dened everywhere except at the points (1 : 0 :
0), (0 : 1 : 0), (0 : 0 : 1).
Example 2.26. Dene the Segre map by
P
n
P
m
P
N
,
((x
0
: . . . : x
n
), (y
0
: . . . , y
m
) (x
0
y
0
: . . . : x
i
y
j
: . . . : x
n
y
m
)
where N = (n + 1)(m+ 1) 1 and 0 i n, 0 j m. This map is well-dened. It
can be checked that this map is bijective, and the image is a projective variety in P
N
.
3. Dimension
One of the goal of algebraic geometry is to classify projective varieties up to certain
equivalences. We will study this notion, and explore some simple invariants which
could be useful in such classication problem.
The rst invariant is dimension. We will study this from several points of view.
First, we recall some notions from eld theory (see [1] for details).
Let E/F be a eld extension.
Denition 3.1. E is algebraic over F E if there is a nonzero polynomial
p(x) F[x] such that p() = 0. E/F is algebraic if all E are algebraic over F.
Denition 3.2. S = {s
1
, . . . , s
n
} E is algebraically independent over F is there is
no nonzero polynomial f(x
1
, . . . , x
n
) F[x
1
, . . . , x
n
] such that f(s
1
, . . . , s
n
) = 0. An
arbitrary subset of E is algebraically independent over F if every nite subset of S is
algebraically independent. The elements of S are called independent transcendentals
over F.
A transcendence base for E/F is a maximal subset (with respect to inclusion) of E
which is algebraically independent over F.
Denition 3.3. The cardinality of a transcendence base for E/F is called the tran-
scendence degree of E/F, denoted by tr deg
F
E.
Note that there always exists a transcendence base, and any two transcendence basis
of E/F will have the same cardinality.
Denition 3.4. Let V be an irreducible variety. Dene the dimension of V to be
dimV = tr deg
k
k(V ) (3.1)
If V is reducible with decomposition into irreducible components V = V
1
. . . V
l
,
then dene its dimension to be
dimV = max
1il
dimV
i
(3.2)
The following follows immediately from the denition and Theorem 2.23.
Proposition 3.5. If V and W are birationally equivalent irreducible varieties, then
dimV = dimW.
ALGEBRAIC VARIETIES AND SOME INVARIANTS 13
Another way to dene dimension is using the notion of Krull dimension.
First, it is a fact that every variety is birationally equivalent to an ane variety (by
a consequence of Noethers normalization theorem, see [6]). So in the following V is an
irreducible ane variety.
Next, we note that every descending chain of ane varieties
X
1
X
2
. . . X
n
. . .
induces a corresponding chain of ideals
I(X
1
) I(X
2
) . . . I(X
n
) . . .
If X
n
X
n+1
is a proper inclusion, then Lemma 1.8 implies that I(X
n
) I(X
n+1
)
is also a proper inclusion. Since k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
] is a Noetherian ring, every descending
chain of ane varieties must terminate, i.e. the following chain
V = V
0
V
1
. . . V
l
= (3.3)
has nite length l. This leads to the following denition.
Denition 3.6. The Krull dimension of V , denoted by kr dim(V ) is the supremum of
the lengths of all descending chains of the form (3.3).
Denition 3.7. Let R be a ring.
(1) The height, ht(I), of a prime ideal I is the supremum over the lengths l of all
chains of prime ideals of the form
I
0
I
1
. . . I
l
= I
(2) The Krull dimension of R, denoted dimR, is the supremum over the heights
ht(I) of all prime ideals I = R.
A descending chain of the form (3.3) gives rise to an ascending chain of prime ideals
{0} I(V
1
) . . . I(V
l
) (3.4)
in the coordinate ring k[V ] = k[x
1
, . . . , x
n
]/I(V ). Conversely, a chain of the form (3.4)
gives rise to a chain of the form (3.3). Therefore we immediately have
kr dim(V ) = dimk[V ] (3.5)
The fact this denition of dimension is equivalent to the previous one follows from
the following result in commutative algebra, whose proof can be found in [2].
Theorem 3.8. Let A be an integral domain which is a nitely generated k-algebra, and
let K be the eld of fractions of A. Then dimA = tr deg
k
A.
Corollary 3.9. If V is an irreducible variety, then kr dim(V ) = tr deg
k
k(V ) = dimV .
Proof. This is immediate from Thereom 3.8, (3.5), and (3.1).
Some examples of computation of dimension will be given after we relate the notion
of dimension with the next invariant called the Hilbert polynomial.
14 AGUS L. SOENJAYA
4. Hilbert Polynomial
We begin with some algebraic concepts.
Denition 4.1 (Graded Module). If R =

d0
R
d
is a graded ring, then a graded
module over R is a module M together with a decomposition into abelian groups
M =

dZ
M
d
such that R
d
M
e
M
d+e
for all d, e.
Now, we can dene the Hilbert function.
Denition 4.2 (Hilbert Function). Let M be a nitely-generated module over k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
]
with grading by degree. The numerical function
h
M
(l) := dim
k
M
l
is called the Hilbert function of M
In particular, let X P
n
be a closed algebraic subset. Let S(X) be the homogeneous
coordinate ring of X. Then S(X) is a graded module over k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
], so that the
Hilbert function of X is
h
X
(l) = dim
k
S(X)
l
Since S(X)

= k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
]/I(X), we have
h
X
(l) = h
P
n(l) dim
k
I(X)
l
i.e. it is the codimension, in the vector space of all homogeneous polynomials of degree
m on P
n
, of the subspace of those vanishing on X.
Example 4.3. We have h
P
n(l) =
_
l+n
n
_
. Note that it is a polynomial of degree n in l,
with leading term
1
n!
d
n
.
From the above, we get
h
X
(l) =
_
l +n
n
_
dim
k
I(X)
l
(4.1)
Example 4.4. Suppose X P
2
consists of three points. They are either collinear or
not. If the points are collinear, then there is a linear relation in I(X), and h
X
(1) =
3 1 = 2. If they are not collinear, then there is no linear relation in I(X), and
h
X
(1) = 3 0 = 3.
We will show that h
X
(2) = 3 regardless of the positions of the points. For each
point p
i
, let L
i
be a linear homogeneous polynomial (linear form) which vanishes on
p
i
, but not on the others. Then the product L
i
L
j
is a quadratic form vanishing on P
i
and P
j
, but not the other. This gives a surjective map from the space of quadratic
polynomials to the ane space k
3
given by the evaluation at the p
i
, and the kernel will
have dimension 3. Similarly h
X
(m) = 3 where m 3, independent of the position of
the points.
More generally, whenever X P
n
is a nite set of d points, for m d 1, the
Hilbert function h
X
(m) = d.
Example 4.5. Let X be a hypersurface in P
n
, say I(X) = (f), with f k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
]
of degree d. Then I(X)
m
is a polynomial of degree m which is divisible by f. This
ALGEBRAIC VARIETIES AND SOME INVARIANTS 15
implies that multiplication by f gives an isomorphism between k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
]
md
and
I(X)
m
. Therefore
h
X
(m) = h
P
n(m) h
P
n(md)
For m d, we have
h
X
(m) =
_
n +m
n
_

_
n +md
n
_
In the case when X is a curve in P
2
, we get h
X
(m) = dm
d(d3)
2
.
Example 4.6. Let X be the rational normal curve of degree d, i.e. X =
d
(P
1
), where

d
: P
1
P
d
[x
0
, x
1
] [x
d
0
: x
d1
0
x
1
: . . . : x
d
1
]
Under the map
d
(called the Veronese map of degree d), the homogeneous polynomial
of degree m in the coordinates [z
0
, . . . , z
d
] in P
d
pullback to give all homogeneous
polynomials of degree md in x
0
and x
1
. Then we have S(X)
m
is isomorphic to the space
of homogeneous polynomials of degree md in two variables, so that h
X
(m) = dm+ 1.
Example 4.7. Let X be a Segre variety
m,n
= (P
n
P
m
) P
N
where N = (n +
1)(m+1) 1. The homogeneous polynomials of degree l in P
N
restrict to
m,n
to give
all bihomogeneous polynomials of bidegree (l, l) on P
m
P
n
. Then h
X
(l) =
_
m+l
m
__
n+l
n
_
.
The following proposition establishes the existence of Hilbert polynomial. The proof
can be found in [3].
Proposition 4.8. Let X P
n
be a variety, and h
X
be its Hilbert function. Then there
exists a polynomial p
X
such that for all suciently large m, h
X
(m) = p
X
(m). The
degree of the polynomial p
X
is the dimension of X.
p
X
is called the Hilbert polynomial of X.
This denition of dimension is equivalent with that in the previous section by (3.5)
and Corollary 3.9. We can now illustrate with examples.
Example 4.9. For curve X P
2
, we have calculated p
X
(m) = dm
d(d3)
2
, in which
case dim(X) = 1, as expected of a curve. More generally, a hypersurface in P
n
with
I(X) = (f), where f is of degree d have dimension n 1, as seen from the Hilbert
polynomial calculated previously.
Remark 4.10. Hilbert polynomial is not preserved under isomorphism of varieties in
general. For instance, the Hilbert polynomial of P
1
is p
X
(m) = m+1, but the Hilbert
polynomial of
3
(P
1
) is p
X
(m) = 3m+1, even though P
1
is isomorphic to
3
(P
1
). The
degree of the two polynomials, which is the dimension, is preserved though as expected.
Nevertheless, any automorphism of P
n
maps a variety V P
n
to a variety V

with the
same Hilbert polynomial.
Related to the notion of dimension and Hilbert polynomial, we introduce briey
another invariant which is independent of the embedding, a fact that requires more
advanced concepts in algebraic geometry.
Denition 4.11. Let X P
n
. Dene the arithmetic genus of X, denoted by p
a
(X)
to be
p
a
(X) = (1)
dimX
(h
X
(0) 1) (4.2)
16 AGUS L. SOENJAYA
From the above denition, we can see for instance p
a
(P
n
) = 0. The arithmetic genus
of other projective varieties mentioned above can be calculated similarly.
We remark that not all polynomials are the Hilbert polynomial of some irreducible
varieties.
Remark 4.12. There is no irreducible variety which has Hilbert polynomial 2t +2. This
is a projective curve, and by a consequence of Riemann-Roch theorem, such variety
would have genus 1 p
X
(0) = 1, which is impossible.
In general, the computation of Hilbert polynomial p
X
of a variety X = V(I) given
the ideal I is complicated, except for the simple cases, and requires the use of computer
algebra system.
5. Degree
Denition 5.1. Let X P
n
. The degree of X, denoted by deg X is dened to be the
product of (dimX)! and the leading coecient of the Hilbert polynomial p
X
(m).
The following proposition says that the degree of a variety is always positive.
Proposition 5.2. The leading coecient of a Hilbert polynomial is
1
(dimX)!
times some
positive integer.
Proof. See [4].
It is immediate from the denition that deg P
n
= 1.
Example 5.3. If X is a nite set consisting of d points, then deg X = d.
Example 5.4. If X is a hypersurface in P
n
, with I(X) = (f), with f of degree d, then
from our calculation of the Hilbert polynomial,
p
X
(m) =
_
n +m
m
_

_
n +md
n
_
=
d
(n 1)!
m
n1
+. . .
So that deg X = d.
Example 5.5. If X is a Segre variety
m,n
, then its Hilbert polynomial is
p
X
(l) =
_
m+l
m
_
+
_
n +l
l
_
=
1
m!n!
l
m+n
+. . .
So that deg X =
(m+n)!
m!n!
=
_
m+n
n
_
.
Example 5.6. Let X, Y P
n
be disjoint varieties. Dene the join of X and Y ,
denoted by J(X, Y ) to be the union
J(X, Y ) :=
_
xX, yY
x, y
of the lines joining points of X to points of Y . The homogeneous coordinate of the
join, S(J(X, Y )) is the tensor product of the homogeneous coordinate rings of X and
Y . We thus have
S(J(X, Y ))
m
=

(S(X)
j
S(Y )
mj
)
ALGEBRAIC VARIETIES AND SOME INVARIANTS 17
Therefore,
h
J(X,Y )
(m) =

h
X
(j) h
Y
(mj)
=
m

j=0
_
deg(X)
_
j +k
k
_
+O(j
k1
)
_

_
deg(Y )
_
mj +l
l
_
+O((mj)
l1
)
_
= deg(X) deg(Y )
m

j=0
__
j +k
k
_

_
mj +l
l
__
+O(m
k+l
)
= deg(X) deg(Y )
_
m+k +l + 1
k +l + 1
_
+O(m
k+l
)
=
deg(X) deg(Y )
(k +l + 1)!
m
k+l+1
+O(m
k+l
)
from which we conclude that deg(J(X, Y )) = deg(X) deg(Y ).
Next, we study some properties of degree.
Proposition 5.7. Let X
1
and X
2
be m-dimensional projective subvarieties of P
n
, and
suppose dim(X
1
X
2
) < m. Then deg(X
1
X
2
) = deg X
1
+ deg X
2
.
Proof. Denote S = k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
] for simplicity. Note that we have the correspondence
of homogeneous coordinate rings
k(X
1
X
2
) = S/(I(X
1
) +I(X
2
)) and k(X
1
X
2
) = S/(I(X
1
) I(X
2
))
We have an exact sequence
0
f
1
S/(I(X
1
) I(X
2
))
f
2
S/I(X
1
) S/I(X
2
)
f
3
S/(I(X
1
) +I(X
2
))
f
4
0
with f
f
2
(f, f) and (f, g)
f
3
f g. We conclude that
h
X
1
(d) +h
X
2
(d) = h
X
1
X
2
(d) +h
X
1
X
2
(d)
for large d, so that in particular the above is valid for Hilbert polynomials. Compar-
ing the leading coecients, we get the required result since the degree of the Hilbert
polynomial of X
1
X
2
is less than m by assumption.
We will now study the Bezouts theorem, which is an important tool in calculating
degree of a variety. We will prove this here only for intersections with hypersurfaces.
Theorem 5.8 (Bezouts Theorem). Let X be a projective subvariety of P
n
of posi-
tive dimension, and let f k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
] be a homogeneous polynomial such that no
component of X is contained in V(f). Then
deg(X V(f)) = deg X deg f
Proof. We have an exact sequence
0 k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
]/I(X)
f
k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
]/I(X) k[x
0
, . . . , x
n
]/(I(X) + (f)) 0
from which it follows by taking Hilbert polynomial that
p
XV(f)
= p
X
(d) p
X
(d deg f)
We know that
p
X
(d) =
deg X
m!
d
m
+c
m1
d
m1
+ terms of order at most d
m2
18 AGUS L. SOENJAYA
where m = dimX. Therefore we get
p
XV(f)
=
deg X
m!
(d
m
(d deg f)
m
) +c
m1
(d
m1
(d deg f)
m1
) +. . .
=
deg X
m!
mdeg f d
m1
+ terms of order at most d
m2
Hence we conclude that deg(X V(f)) = deg X deg f.
Example 5.9. Let C
1
and C
2
be two curves in P
2
without common irreducible com-
ponents, given as the zero locus of homogeneous polynomials of degree d
1
and d
2
respectively. By Bezouts theorem, deg(C
1
C
2
) = d
1
d
2
.
In fact, a more general version of Bezouts theorem is valid. To state the theorem,
we make the following denitions.
Denition 5.10. Let X, Y P
n
be two subvarieties. X and Y are said to intersect
properly if
dim(X Y ) = dim(X) + dim(Y ) n
Denition 5.11. To any pair of varieties X, Y P
n
intersecting properly, and any
irreducible variety Z P
n
of dimension dim(X) + dim(Y ) n, we can associate a
nonnegative integer m
Z
(X, Y ) called the intersection multiplicty of X and Y along Z,
having the following properties:
(1) m
Z
(X, Y ) 1 if Z X Y (for formal reasons set m
Z
(X, Y ) = 0 otherwise).
(2) m
Z
(X, Y ) = 1 if and only if X and Y intersect transversely at a general point
p Z.
(3) m
Z
(X, Y ) is additive, i.e. m
Z
(X X

, Y ) = m
Z
(X, Y ) + m
Z
(X

, Y ) for any
X and X

as long as all three are dened and X and X

have no common
components.
Further properties of intersection multiplicity, as well as the following proof of the
generalization of Bezouts theorem can be found in [3] and [4].
Theorem 5.12. Let X, Y P
n
be two subvarieties intersecting properly. Then
deg(X) deg(Y ) =

m
Z
(X, Y ) deg(Z)
where the sum is over all irreducible components Z of X Y .
An immediate consequence of the above theorem is the following.
Corollary 5.13. Let X, Y P
n
be two subvarieties intersecting properly. Then
deg(X Y ) deg(X) deg(Y )
6. Conclusion
We have explored some elements of algebraic geometry through the study of algebraic
varieties and their discrete invariants. We have provided some important basic results
in this area and given some examples to illustrate them. Further study in algebraic
geometry would involve studying a structure called scheme, which is a generalization
of variety. For further study in the theory of scheme and cohomology, the reader is
referred to [4].
ALGEBRAIC VARIETIES AND SOME INVARIANTS 19
References
1. D. Dummit, R. Foote, Abstract Algebra, 3rd Edition, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2004.
2. D. Eisenbud, Commutative Algebra with a View towards Algebraic Geometry, Graduate Texts in
Mathematics 150, Springer-Verlag, 1995.
3. J. Harris, Algebraic Geometry: A First Course, Graduate Texts in Mathematics 133, Springer,
1992.
4. R. Hartshorne, Algebraic Geometry, Graduate Texts in Mathematics 52, Springer-Verlag, 1977.
5. K. Hulek, Elementary Algebraic Geometry, AMS Student Mathematical Library Vol. 20, American
Mathematical Society, 2003.
6. M. Reid, Undergraduate Algebraic Geometry, London Mathematical Society Student Texts 12,
Cambridge University Press, 1988.
1
Department of Mathematics, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
E-mail address: agus.leonardi@nus.edu.sg