Projective spaceIn mathematics, the concept of a projective space originated from the visual effect of perspective, where parallel lines seem to meet at infinity. A projective space may thus be viewed as the extension of a Euclidean space, or, more generally, an affine space with points at infinity, in such a way that there is one point at infinity of each direction of parallel lines. This definition of a projective space has the disadvantage of not being isotropic, having two different sorts of points, which must be considered separately in proofs.
Resolution of singularitiesIn algebraic geometry, the problem of resolution of singularities asks whether every algebraic variety V has a resolution, a non-singular variety W with a proper birational map W→V. For varieties over fields of characteristic 0 this was proved in Hironaka (1964), while for varieties over fields of characteristic p it is an open problem in dimensions at least 4. Originally the problem of resolution of singularities was to find a nonsingular model for the function field of a variety X, in other words a complete non-singular variety X′ with the same function field.
Moduli spaceIn mathematics, in particular algebraic geometry, a moduli space is a geometric space (usually a scheme or an algebraic stack) whose points represent algebro-geometric objects of some fixed kind, or isomorphism classes of such objects. Such spaces frequently arise as solutions to classification problems: If one can show that a collection of interesting objects (e.g., the smooth algebraic curves of a fixed genus) can be given the structure of a geometric space, then one can parametrize such objects by introducing coordinates on the resulting space.
Segre embeddingIn mathematics, the Segre embedding is used in projective geometry to consider the cartesian product (of sets) of two projective spaces as a projective variety. It is named after Corrado Segre. The Segre map may be defined as the map taking a pair of points to their product (the XiYj are taken in lexicographical order). Here, and are projective vector spaces over some arbitrary field, and the notation is that of homogeneous coordinates on the space. The image of the map is a variety, called a Segre variety.
Nef line bundleIn algebraic geometry, a line bundle on a projective variety is nef if it has nonnegative degree on every curve in the variety. The classes of nef line bundles are described by a convex cone, and the possible contractions of the variety correspond to certain faces of the nef cone. In view of the correspondence between line bundles and divisors (built from codimension-1 subvarieties), there is an equivalent notion of a nef divisor. More generally, a line bundle L on a proper scheme X over a field k is said to be nef if it has nonnegative degree on every (closed irreducible) curve in X.
Italian school of algebraic geometryIn relation to the history of mathematics, the Italian school of algebraic geometry refers to mathematicians and their work in birational geometry, particularly on algebraic surfaces, centered around Rome roughly from 1885 to 1935. There were 30 to 40 leading mathematicians who made major contributions, about half of those being Italian. The leadership fell to the group in Rome of Guido Castelnuovo, Federigo Enriques and Francesco Severi, who were involved in some of the deepest discoveries, as well as setting the style.
Hodge theoryIn mathematics, Hodge theory, named after W. V. D. Hodge, is a method for studying the cohomology groups of a smooth manifold M using partial differential equations. The key observation is that, given a Riemannian metric on M, every cohomology class has a canonical representative, a differential form that vanishes under the Laplacian operator of the metric. Such forms are called harmonic. The theory was developed by Hodge in the 1930s to study algebraic geometry, and it built on the work of Georges de Rham on de Rham cohomology.
Cremona groupIn algebraic geometry, the Cremona group, introduced by , is the group of birational automorphisms of the -dimensional projective space over a field . It is denoted by or or . The Cremona group is naturally identified with the automorphism group of the field of the rational functions in indeterminates over , or in other words a pure transcendental extension of , with transcendence degree . The projective general linear group of order , of projective transformations, is contained in the Cremona group of order .
Algebraic varietyAlgebraic 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.
Irreducible componentIn algebraic geometry, an irreducible algebraic set or irreducible variety is an algebraic set that cannot be written as the union of two proper algebraic subsets. An irreducible component is an algebraic subset that is irreducible and maximal (for set inclusion) for this property. For example, the set of solutions of the equation xy = 0 is not irreducible, and its irreducible components are the two lines of equations x = 0 and y =0.
Ruled surfaceIn geometry, a surface S is ruled (also called a scroll) if through every point of S there is a straight line that lies on S. Examples include the plane, the lateral surface of a cylinder or cone, a conical surface with elliptical directrix, the right conoid, the helicoid, and the tangent developable of a smooth curve in space. A ruled surface can be described as the set of points swept by a moving straight line. For example, a cone is formed by keeping one point of a line fixed whilst moving another point along a circle.
