Birational geometry (nonfiction)

The circle is birationally equivalent to the line. One birational map between them is a stereographic projection onto the z=0 plane, pictured here.

In mathematics, birational geometry is a field of algebraic geometry in which the goal is to determine when two algebraic varieties are isomorphic outside lower-dimensional subsets. This amounts to studying mappings that are given by rational functions rather than polynomials; the map may fail to be defined where the rational functions have poles.

Birational maps

A rational map from one variety (understood to be irreducible) X to another variety Y, written as a dashed arrow X ⇢ Y, is defined as a morphism from a nonempty open subset U of X to Y. By definition of the Zariski topology used in algebraic geometry, a nonempty open subset U is always the complement of a lower-dimensional subset of X. Concretely, a rational map can be written in coordinates using rational functions.

A birational map from X to Y is a rational map f: X ⇢ Y such that there is a rational map Y ⇢ X inverse to f. A birational map induces an isomorphism from a nonempty open subset of X to a nonempty open subset of Y. In this case, X and Y are said to be birational, or birationally equivalent. In algebraic terms, two varieties over a field k are birational if and only if their function fields are isomorphic as extension fields of k.

A special case is a birational morphism f: X → Y, meaning a morphism which is birational. That is, f is defined everywhere, but its inverse may not be. Typically, this happens because a birational morphism contracts some subvarieties of X to points in Y.

A variety X is said to be rational if it is birational to affine space (or equivalently, to projective space) of some dimension. Rationality is a very natural property: it means that X minus some lower-dimensional subset can be identified with affine space minus some lower-dimensional subset.

Fiction cross-reference

• Crimes against mathematical constants
• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles
• Mathematician
• Mathematics

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Algebraic geometry (nonfiction) - branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrical problems about these sets of zeros.
  • The fundamental objects of study in algebraic geometry are algebraic varieties, which are geometric manifestations of solutions of systems of polynomial equations. Examples of the most studied classes of algebraic varieties are: plane algebraic curves, which include lines, circles, parabolas, ellipses, hyperbolas, cubic curves like elliptic curves, and quartic curves like lemniscates and Cassini ovals.
• Algebraic variety (nonfiction) - the central objects of study in algebraic geometry. 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.
• Mathematics (nonfiction)
• Polynomial (nonfiction) - an expression consisting of variables (also called indeterminates) and coefficients, that involves only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and non-negative integer exponents of variables. An example of a polynomial of a single indeterminate, x, is x2 − 4x + 7. An example in three variables is x3 + 2xyz2 − yz + 1.
• Rational function (nonfiction) - any function which can be defined by a rational fraction, i.e. an algebraic fraction such that both the numerator and the denominator are polynomials.
• Rational mapping (nonfiction) - in algebraic geometry, a kind of partial function between algebraic varieties. This article uses the convention that varieties are irreducible.
• Stereographic projection (nonfiction) - In geometry, the stereographic projection is a particular mapping (function) that projects a sphere onto a plane. The projection is defined on the entire sphere, except at one point: the projection point. Where it is defined, the mapping is smooth and bijective. It is conformal, meaning that it preserves angles at which curves meet. It is neither isometric nor area-preserving: that is, it preserves neither distances nor the areas of figures.

External links:

• Number theory @ Wikipedia