Abstract
One of the main goals of algebraic geometry is to understand the geometry of smooth projective varieties. For instance, given a smooth projective surface X, we can ask a host of questions whose answers might help illuminate its geometry. What kinds of curves does the surface contain? Is it covered by rational curves, that is, curves birationally equivalent to ℙ1? If not, how many rational curves does it contain, and how do they intersect each other? Or is it more natural to think of the surface as a family of elliptic curves (genus-1 Riemann surfaces) or as some other family? Is the surface isomorphic to ℙ2 or some other familiar variety on a dense set? What other surfaces are birationally equivalent to X? What kinds of automorphisms does the surface have? What kinds of continuously varying families of surfaces does it fit into?
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© 2000 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Smith, K.E., Kahanpää, L., Kekäläinen, P., Traves, W. (2000). Maps to Projective Space. In: An Invitation to Algebraic Geometry. Universitext. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4497-2_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4497-2_8
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
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