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The Stacks project

Products of varieties are varieties over algebraically closed fields.

Lemma 33.3.3. Let k be an algebraically closed field. Let X, Y be varieties over k. Then X \times _{\mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(k)} Y is a variety over k.

Proof. The morphism X \times _{\mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(k)} Y \to \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(k) is of finite type and separated because it is the composition of the morphisms X \times _{\mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(k)} Y \to Y \to \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(k) which are separated and of finite type, see Morphisms, Lemmas 29.15.4 and 29.15.3 and Schemes, Lemma 26.21.12. To finish the proof it suffices to show that X \times _{\mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(k)} Y is integral. Let X = \bigcup _{i = 1, \ldots , n} U_ i, Y = \bigcup _{j = 1, \ldots , m} V_ j be finite affine open coverings. If we can show that each U_ i \times _{\mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(k)} V_ j is integral, then we are done by Properties, Lemmas 28.3.2, 28.3.3, and 28.3.4. This reduces us to the affine case.

The affine case translates into the following algebra statement: Suppose that A, B are integral domains and finitely generated k-algebras. Then A \otimes _ k B is an integral domain. To get a contradiction suppose that

(\sum \nolimits _{i = 1, \ldots , n} a_ i \otimes b_ i) (\sum \nolimits _{j = 1, \ldots , m} c_ j \otimes d_ j) = 0

in A \otimes _ k B with both factors nonzero in A \otimes _ k B. We may assume that b_1, \ldots , b_ n are k-linearly independent in B, and that d_1, \ldots , d_ m are k-linearly independent in B. Of course we may also assume that a_1 and c_1 are nonzero in A. Hence D(a_1c_1) \subset \mathop{\mathrm{Spec}}(A) is nonempty. By the Hilbert Nullstellensatz (Algebra, Theorem 10.34.1) we can find a maximal ideal \mathfrak m \subset A contained in D(a_1c_1) and A/\mathfrak m = k as k is algebraically closed. Denote \overline{a}_ i, \overline{c}_ j the residue classes of a_ i, c_ j in A/\mathfrak m = k. The equation above becomes

(\sum \nolimits _{i = 1, \ldots , n} \overline{a}_ i b_ i) (\sum \nolimits _{j = 1, \ldots , m} \overline{c}_ j d_ j) = 0

which is a contradiction with \mathfrak m \in D(a_1c_1), the linear independence of b_1, \ldots , b_ n and d_1, \ldots , d_ m, and the fact that B is a domain. \square


Comments (3)

Comment #3017 by Brian Lawrence on

Suggested slogan: Over an algebraically closed field, the product of two varieties is a variety.

Comment #3208 by Dario Weißmann on

Typo: Then equation above


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