Questions tagged [ag.algebraic-geometry]

Algebraic varieties, stacks, sheaves, schemes, moduli spaces, complex geometry, quantum cohomology.

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Why is there a connection between enumerative geometry and nonlinear waves?

Recently I encountered in a class the fact that there is a generating function of Gromov–Witten invariants that satisfies the Korteweg–de Vries hierarchy. Let me state the fact more precisely. ...
Nathaniel Bottman's user avatar
71 votes
6 answers
9k views

Kahler differentials and Ordinary Differentials

What's the relationship between Kahler differentials and ordinary differential forms?
Abtan Massini's user avatar
46 votes
2 answers
6k views

What interesting/nontrivial results in Algebraic geometry require the existence of universes?

Brian Conrad indicated a while ago that many of the results proven in AG using universes can be proven without them by being very careful (link). I'm wondering if there are any results in AG that ...
Harry Gindi's user avatar
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18 votes
3 answers
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Guises of the Stasheff polytopes, associahedra for the Coxeter $A_n$ root system?

Richard Stanley keeps a famous running compilation of different guises of the celebrated Catalan numbers. The number of vertices of the associahedron is one instantiation among the multitude, and the ...
Tom Copeland's user avatar
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18 votes
2 answers
2k views

Explaining Mukai-Fourier transforms physically

A core concept in mathematics, engineering, and physics is the Fourier Transform (FT) and its many variants (Generalized Fourier Series, Green's Function, Pontryagin duality). The basic algorithm is ...
Tom Copeland's user avatar
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249 votes
37 answers
169k views

Best algebraic geometry textbook? (other than Hartshorne)

I think (almost) everyone agrees that Hartshorne's Algebraic Geometry is still the best. Then what might be the 2nd best? It can be a book, preprint, online lecture note, webpage, etc. One suggestion ...
38 votes
3 answers
8k views

The error in Petrovski and Landis' proof of the 16th Hilbert problem

What was the main error in the proof of the second part of the 16th Hilbert problem by Petrovski and Landis? Please see this related post and also the following post.. For Mathematical development ...
Ali Taghavi's user avatar
32 votes
6 answers
4k views

Is there any holomorphic version of the tubular neighborhood theorem?

This question arised when I was studying Beauville's book 'Complex Algebraic Surfaces'. Castelnuovo's theorem says that a smooth rational curve $E$ on an algebraic surface $S$ is an exceptional ...
Yuchen Liu's user avatar
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16 votes
1 answer
5k views

Bijection implies isomorphism for algebraic varieties

Let $f:X\to Y$ be a morphism of algebraic varieties over $\mathbb C$. Assume that a) $f$ is bijective on $\mathbb C$-points b) $X$ is connected c) $Y$ is normal. Does it imply that $f$ is an ...
Alexander Braverman's user avatar
38 votes
1 answer
2k views

Is an affine fibration over an affine space necessarily trivial?

Let $X$ be an algebraic variety over an alg. closed field with zero char. and let $f:X\to \mathbb{A}^n$ be a smooth surjective morphism, such that all fibers (at closed points) are isomorphic to $\...
KotelKanim's user avatar
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38 votes
8 answers
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Why do we need model categories?

I cannot give a good answer to this question. And 2) Why this definition of model category is the right way to give a philosophy of homotopy theory? Why didn't we use any other definition? 3) Has ...
Megan's user avatar
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293 votes
8 answers
141k views

Philosophy behind Mochizuki's work on the ABC conjecture

Mochizuki has recently announced a proof of the ABC conjecture. It is far too early to judge its correctness, but it builds on many years of work by him. Can someone briefly explain the philosophy ...
78 votes
9 answers
21k views

Results that are widely accepted but no proof has appeared

The background of this question is the talk given by Kevin Buzzard. I could not find the slides of that talk. The slides of another talk given by Kevin Buzzard along the same theme are available here. ...
74 votes
5 answers
13k views

Is there a "geometric" intuition underlying the notion of normal varieties?

I first got concious of the notion of normal varieties around 3 years ago and despite the fact that by now I can manipulate with it a bit, this notion still puzzles me a lot. One thing that strikes me ...
aglearner's user avatar
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48 votes
8 answers
8k views

When are there enough projective sheaves on a space X?

This question is being asked on behalf of a colleague of mine. Let $X$ be a topological space. It is well known that the abelian category of sheaves on $X$ has enough injectives: that is, every ...
Pete L. Clark's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
8k views

The canonical line bundle of a normal variety

I have heard that the canonical divisor can be defined on a normal variety X since the smooth locus has codimension 2. Then, I have heard as well that for ANY algebraic variety such that the canonical ...
Jesus Martinez Garcia's user avatar
50 votes
7 answers
14k views

Why are local systems and representations of the fundamental group equivalent

My question: Let X be a sufficiently 'nice' topological space. Then there is an equivalence between representations of the fundamental group of X and local systems on X, i.e. sheaves on X locally ...
bavajee's user avatar
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50 votes
5 answers
14k views

The unification of Mathematics via Topos Theory

In her paper The unification of Mathematics via Topos Theory, Olivia Caramello says "one can generate a huge number of new results in any mathematical field without any creative effort". Is ...
Roy Maclean's user avatar
  • 1,140
14 votes
1 answer
757 views

Is there a lift of the q-Vandermonde identity to some geometric (motivic) identity for Grassmannians over $F_q$?

The q-Vandermonde identity reads: $$ \binom{m + n}{k}_{\!\!q} =\sum_{j} \binom{m}{k - j}_{\!\!q} \binom{n}{j}_{\!\!q} q^{j(m-k+j)} $$ The q-binomial coefficients: $$ \binom{ a }{ b}_{\!\!q} $$ ...
Alexander Chervov's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
3k views

Conditions under which a bijective morphism of quasi-projective varieties is an isomorphism

I'm currently reading a paper by Nakajima (Quiver Varieties and Tensor Products), and I'm having a hard time understanding a very specific step in his proof of Lemma 3.2. Essentially, we have two (...
Joel's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
697 views

Compositional inversion and generating functions in algebraic geometry

The exponential generating function of the graded dimension of the cohomology ring of the moduli space of n-pointed curves of genus zero satisfying the associativity equations of physics (the WDVV ...
Tom Copeland's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
1k views

When do two non-degenerate quadratic forms give rise to isomorphic Lie algebras?

Let $V$ be a vector space over some number field $k$. (I'm fine with $\mathbb{Q}$.) Let $\phi \colon V \to k$ be a non-degenerate quadratic form. Associated with $\phi$ is the orthogonal group $\...
jmc's user avatar
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133 votes
6 answers
22k views

what mistakes did the Italian algebraic geometers actually make?

It's "well-known" that the 19th century Italian school of algebraic geometry made great progress but also started to flounder due to lack of rigour, possibly in part due to the fact that foundations (...
Kevin Buzzard's user avatar
127 votes
15 answers
49k views

A learning roadmap for algebraic geometry

Unfortunately this question is relatively general, and also has a lot of sub-questions and branches associated with it; however, I suspect that other students wonder about it and thus hope it may be ...
100 votes
6 answers
11k views

Is there an analogue of curvature in algebraic geometry?

I am not an expert, but there seems to be an enormous technical difference between algebraic geometry and differential/metric geometry stemming from the fact that there is apparently no such thing as ...
Paul Siegel's user avatar
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97 votes
10 answers
13k views

equivalence of Grothendieck-style versus Cech-style sheaf cohomology

Given a topological space $X$, we can define the sheaf cohomology of $X$ in I. the Grothendieck style (as the right derived functor of the global sections functor $\Gamma(X,-)$) or II. the Čech ...
Victoria Flat's user avatar
86 votes
15 answers
35k views

The importance of EGA and SGA for "students of today"

That fact that EGA and SGA have played mayor roles is uncontroversial. But they contain many volumes/chapters and going through them would take a lot of time, especially if you do not speak French. ...
75 votes
4 answers
6k views

When is a singular point of a variety ($\mathcal{C}^\infty$-) smooth?

If $X$ is a nonsingular algebraic (or analytic) variety over $\mathbb C$ or $\mathbb R$ then it is certainly $C^\infty$ over the reals. The converse is false for a silly reason : in the real or ...
Georges Elencwajg's user avatar
74 votes
16 answers
8k views

Geometric / physical / probabilistic interpretations of Riemann zeta($n>1$)?

What are some physical, geometric, or probabilistic interpretations of the values of the Riemann zeta function at the positive integers greater than one? I've found some examples: 1) In MO-Q111339 ...
67 votes
1 answer
7k views

What is the relationship between motivic cohomology and the theory of motives?

I will begin by giving a rough sketch of my understanding of motives. In many expositions about motives (for example, http://www.jmilne.org/math/xnotes/MOT102.pdf), the category of motives is defined ...
Makhalan Duff's user avatar
53 votes
6 answers
8k views

Colimits of schemes

This is related to another question. I've found many remarks that the category of schemes is not cocomplete. The category of locally ringed spaces is cocomplete, and in some special cases this turns ...
Martin Brandenburg's user avatar
49 votes
6 answers
6k views

Open affine subscheme of affine scheme which is not principal

I'm not sure whether this is non-trivial or not, but do there exist simple examples of an affine scheme $X$ having an open affine subscheme $U$ which is not principal in $X$? By a principal open of $X ...
Wanderer's user avatar
  • 5,113
49 votes
8 answers
25k views

Roadmap for studying arithmetic geometry

I have read Hartshorne's Algebraic Geometry from chapter 1 to chapter 4, so I'd like to find some suggestions about the next step to study arithmetic geometry. I want to know how to use scheme ...
40 votes
8 answers
10k views

Ubiquity of the push-pull formula

The push-pull formula appears in several different incarnations. There are, at least, the following: 1) If $f \colon X \to Y$ is a continous map, then for sheaves $\mathcal{F}$ on $X$ and $\mathcal{G}...
Andrea Ferretti's user avatar
38 votes
2 answers
3k views

Do Grothendieck universes matter for an algebraic geometer?

I recently learned that some parts of SGA require axioms beyond ZFC. I am just a simple algebraic geometer so I am trying to understand how can this fact impact my life (you may have engaged in a ...
user avatar
33 votes
4 answers
5k views

The Jouanolou trick

In Une suite exacte de Mayer-Vietoris en K-théorie algébrique (1972) Jouanolou proves that for any quasi-projective variety $X$ there is an affine variety $Y$ which maps surjectively to $X$ with ...
algori's user avatar
  • 23.2k
29 votes
2 answers
10k views

When is fiber dimension upper semi-continuous?

Suppose $f\colon X \to Y $ is a morphism of schemes. We can define a function on the topological space $Y$ by sending $y\in Y$ to the dimension of the fiber of $f$ over $y$. When is this function ...
Anton Geraschenko's user avatar
27 votes
1 answer
1k views

Biholomophic non-Algebraically Isomorphic Varieties

Recently, when writing a review for MathSciNet, the following question arose: Is it true that two smooth complex varieties that are biholomorphic are algebraically isomorphic? The converse is true ...
Sean Lawton's user avatar
  • 8,384
26 votes
3 answers
5k views

When is an algebraic space a scheme?

Sometimes general theory is "good" at showing that a functor is representable by an algebraic spaces (e.g., Hilbert functors, Picard functors, coarse moduli spaces, etc). What sort of general ...
mdeland's user avatar
  • 1,980
22 votes
6 answers
7k views

A finitely generated $\mathbb{Z}$-algebra that is a field has to be finite

I was trying to understand completely the post of Terrence Tao on Ax-Grothendieck theorem. This is very cute. Using finite fields you prove that every injective polynomial map $\mathbb C^n\to \mathbb ...
aglearner's user avatar
  • 14k
21 votes
4 answers
5k views

Extending vector bundles on a given open subscheme, reprise

In this question, Ariyan asks about the question of uniqueness of extensions of vector bundles when they exist. Sasha's answer suggests that extensions of vector bundles don't always exist. More ...
Kevin H. Lin's user avatar
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21 votes
3 answers
6k views

What are the current breakthroughs of Geometric Complexity Theory?

I've read from Wikipedia about Geometric Complexity Theory (GCT) which (if I understood correctly) is a program for coping with the $ P=NP $ problem using algebraic methods. That program seems ...
21 votes
1 answer
2k views

naive de Rham cohomology fails for singular varieties

Let $X$ be a variety over a field $k$ of characteristic zero. If $X$ is smooth, algebraic de Rham cohomology defined as $$ H^n_{dR}(X / k)=\mathbb{H}^n(X, \Omega^\bullet_{X/k})\qquad (\star) $$ is a ...
dr91's user avatar
  • 211
18 votes
4 answers
7k views

Isomorphism between varieties of char 0

Hi, the following statement appeared implicitly in a text I read and maybe you could just give me a hint how to see this resp. give a reference: If you have two k-varieties $X$ and $Y$ (sufficiently ...
ernest's user avatar
  • 183
18 votes
2 answers
1k views

Explicit invariant of tensors nonvanishing on the diagonal

The group $SL_n \times SL_n \times SL_n$ acts naturally on the vector space $\mathbb C^n \otimes \mathbb C^n \otimes \mathbb C^n$ and has a rather large ring of polynomial invariants. The element $$\...
Will Sawin's user avatar
  • 135k
16 votes
2 answers
2k views

Good introductory references on moduli (stacks), for arithmetic objects

I've studied some fundation of algebraic geometry, such as Hartshorne's "Algebraic Geometry", Liu's "Algebraic Geometry and Arithmetic Curves", Silverman's "The Arithmetic of Elliptic Curves", and ...
k.j.'s user avatar
  • 1,352
14 votes
3 answers
3k views

Does isomorphic generic fibre imply isomorphic special fibre for smooth morphisms?

Let $X$ and $Y$ be regular integral Noetherian schemes. Assume that $X$ and $Y$ are smooth and proper over a base scheme $S=Spec R$, where $R$ is a discrete valuation ring. If $X$ and $Y$ have ...
Daniel Loughran's user avatar
14 votes
2 answers
3k views

How to prove that a projective variety is a finite CW complex?

Let $X$ be a (singular) projective variety, in other words something given by a collection of polynomial equations in $\mathbb CP^n$ or $\mathbb RP^n$. How can one prove it is a finite $CW$ complex? ...
Dmitri Panov's user avatar
  • 28.8k
13 votes
1 answer
1k views

Schemes with no nonconstant maps to lower dimensional schemes

Fix an algebraically closed field $k$ (arbitrary characteristic), all schemes will be of finite type over $k$. (Property *): I'm interested in (classes of) examples of schemes $X$ (irreducible, of ...
LMN's user avatar
  • 3,525
12 votes
2 answers
3k views

Global sections of flat scheme also flat?

In the most naive form my question would be as follows: If $f:X\to \mathrm{Spec}\;A$ is a flat morphism of schemes is it true that $H^0(X,\mathcal{O}_X)$ is a flat $A$-module? In general the answer ...
Philipp Hartwig's user avatar

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