Difference between revisions of "Algebraic geometry"

Revision as of 08:53, 11 February 2008

Algebraic geometry is the study of solutions of polynomial equations by means of abstract algebra, and in particular ring theory. Algebraic geometry is most easily done over algebraically closed fields, but it can also be done more generally over any field or even over rings.

Affine Algebraic Varieties

One of the first basic objects studied in algebraic geometry is a variety. Let $\mathbb{A}^k$ denote affine $k$ -space, i.e. a vector space of dimension $k$ over an algebraically closed field, such as the field $\mathbb{C}$ of complex numbers. (We can think of this as $k$ -dimensional "complex Euclidean" space.) Let $R=\mathbb{C}[X_1,\ldots,X_k]$ be the polynomial ring in $k$ variables, and let $I$ be a maximal ideal of $R$ . Then $V(I)=\{p\in\mathbb{A}^k\mid f(p)=0\mathrm{\ for\ all\ } f\in I\}$ is called an affine algebraic variety.