Please read:

A personal appeal from

Wikipedia founder Jimmy
Wales

Projective space
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In mathematics a projective space is a set of elements similar to the set P(V) of lines through the origin of
a vector space V. The cases when V=R2 or V=R3 are the projective line and the projective plane,
respectively.

The idea of a projective space relates to perspective, more precisely to the way an eye or a camera
projects a 3D scene to a 2D image. All points which lie on a projection line (i.e., a "line-of-sight"),
intersecting with the focal point of the camera, are projected onto a common image point. In this case the
vector space is R3 with the camera focal point at the origin and the projective space corresponds to the
image points.

Projective spaces can be studied as a separate field in mathematics, but are also used in various applied
fields, geometry in particular. Geometric objects, such as points, lines, or planes, can be given a
representation as elements in projective spaces based on homogeneous coordinates. As a result, various
relations between these objects can be described in a simpler way than is possible without homogeneous
coordinates. Furthermore, various statements in geometry can be made more consistent and without
exceptions. For example, in the standard geometry for the plane two lines always intersect at a point
except when the lines are parallel. In a projective representation of lines and points, however, such an
intersection point exists even for parallel lines, and it can be computed in the same way as other
intersection points.

Other mathematical fields where projective spaces play a significant role are topology, the theory of Lie
groups and algebraic groups, and their representation theories.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Introduction

• 2 Definition of projective
 space

• 3 Projective space as a

manifold

• 4 Projective space and affine

space

• 5 Axioms for projective space

○ 5.1 Classification

• 6 Morphisms

• 7 Generalizations

• 8 See also

○ 8.1 Generalizations

○ 8.2 Projective

geometry

○ 8.3 Related

• 9 References

• 10 External links

[edit]Introduction

As outlined above, projective space is a geometric object formalizing statements like "Parallel lines
intersect at infinity". For concreteness, we will give the construction of the real projective plane RP2 in some
detail. There are three equivalent definitions:

1. The set of all lines in (real 3-)space R3 passing through the origin (0,
0, 0). Every such line meets the sphere of radius one centered in the
 origin exactly twice, say in P = (x, y, z) and its antipodal point (-x, -y, -
z).

2. RP2 can also be described to be the points on the sphere S2, where
every point P and its antipodal point are not distinguished. For
example, the point (1, 0, 0) (red point in the image) is identified with (-
1, 0, 0) (light red point), etc.

3. Finally, yet another equivalent definition is the set of equivalence

classes of R3\(0, 0, 0), i.e. 3-space without the origin, where two
points P= (x, y, z) and P* = (x*, y*, z*) are equivalent iff there is a
nonzero real number λ such that P = λ·P*,
i.e. x = λx*, y = λy*, z = λz*. The usual way to write an element of the
projective plane, i.e. the equivalence class corresponding to an
honest point (x, y, z) in R3, is

[x : y : z].

The last formula goes under the name of homogeneous coordinates.

Notice that any point [x : y : z] with z ≠ 0 is equivalent to [x/z : y/z : 1]. So

there are two disjoint subsets of the projective plane: that consisting of
the points [x : y : z] = [x/z : y/z : 1] for z≠ 0, and that consisting of the
remaining points [x : y : 0]. The latter set can be subdivided similarly into
two disjoint subsets, with points [x/y : 1 : 0] and [x : 0 : 0]. In the last
case, x is necessarily nonzero, because the origin was not part of RP2.
Thus the point is equivalent to [1 : 0 : 0]. Geometrically, the first subset,
which is isomorphic (not only as a set, but also as a manifold, as will be
seen later) to R2, is in the image the yellow upper hemisphere (without
the equator), or equivalently the lower hemisphere. The second subset,
isomorphic to R1, corresponds to the green line (without the two marked
points), or, again, equivalently the light green line. Finally we have the
red point or the equivalent light red point. We thus have a disjoint
decomposition

RP2 = R2 ⊔ R1 ⊔ point.

Intuitively, and made precise below, R1 ⊔ point is itself the real

projective line RP1. Considered as a subset of RP2, it is called line
at infinity, whereas R2 ⊂ RP2 is called affine plane, i.e. just the
usual plane.
 The next objective is to make the saying "parallel lines meet at
infinity" precise. A natural bijection between the plane z = 1 (which
meets the sphere at the north pole N = (0, 0, 1)) and the affine
plane inside the projective plane (i.e. the upper hemisphere) is
accomplished by the stereographic projection, i.e. any point P on
this plane is mapped to the intersection point of the line through the
origin and P and the sphere. Therefore two lines L1 and L2 (blue) in
the plane are mapped to what looks like great circles(antipodal
points are identified, though). Great circles intersect precisely in
two antipodal points, which are identified in the projective plane,
i.e. any two lines have exactly one intersection point inside RP2.
This phenomenon is axiomatized and studied in projective
geometry.

[edit]Definition of projective space

Real projective space, RPn, is defined by

RPn := (Rn+1 \ {0}) / ~,

with the equivalence relation (x0, ..., xn) ~ (λx0, ..., λxn),
where λ is an arbitrary non-zero real number. Equivalently, it
is the set of all lines in Rn+1 passing through the origin 0 :=
(0, ..., 0).

Instead of R, one may take any field, or even a division

ring, k. Taking the complex numbers or the quaternions, one
obtains the complex projective space CPn and quaternionic
projective space HPn. In algebraic geometry the usual
notation for projective space is Pnk.

If n is one or two, it is also called projective line or projective

plane, respectively. The complex projective line is also called
the Riemann sphere.
 As in the above special case, the notation (so-
called homogeneous coordinates) for a point in projective
space is

[x0 : ... : xn].

Slightly more generally, for a vector space V (over

some field k, or even more generally a module V over
some division ring), P(V) is defined to be (V \ {0}) / ~,
where two non-zero vectorsv1, v2 in V are equivalent if
they differ by a non-zero scalar λ, i.e., v1 = λv2. The
vector space need not be finite-dimensional; thus, for
example, there is the theory of projective Hilbert
spaces.

In the theory of Alexander Grothendieck, especially in

the construction of projective bundles, there are
reasons for applying the construction outlined above
rather to the dual space V*, the reasons being that we
would like to associate a projective space to every
scheme Y and every quasi-coherent sheaf E over Y,
not just the locally free ones. See EGAII, Chap. II, par. 4
for more details.

[edit]Projective space as a manifold

Manifold structure of the real projective line

The above definition of projective space gives a set. For

purposes of differential geometry, which deals
with manifolds, it is useful to endow this set with a (real
or complex) manifold structure.
Namely consider the following
subsets:

. By the definition of projective space, their union is the

whole projective space. Further, Ui is in bijection
to Rn (or Cn) via

(the hat means that the i-th entry is

missing).

The example image shows RP1. (Antipodal

points are identified in RP1, though). It is
covered by two copies of the real line R,
each of which covers the projective line
except one point, which is "the" (or a) point
at infinity.

We first define a topology on projective

space by declaring that these maps shall
be homeomorphisms, that is, a subset
of Ui is open iff its image under the above
isomorphism is an open subset (in the usual
sense) of Rn. An arbitrary subset A of RPn is
open if all intersections A ∩ Ui are open.
This defines a topological space.

The manifold structure is given by the above

maps, too.

Different visualization of the projective line

 Another way to think about the projective
line is the following: take two copies of the
affine line with coordinates x and y,
respectively, and glue them together along
the subsets x ≠ 0 and y ≠ 0 via the maps

The resulting manifold is the projective

line. The charts given by this
construction are the same as the ones
above. Similar presentations exist for
higher-dimensional projective spaces.

The above decomposition in disjoint

subsets reads in this generality:

RPn = Rn ⊔ Rn-1 ⊔ ⊔ R1 ⊔ R0,

this so-called cell-

decomposition can be used to
calculate the singular
cohomology of projective space.

All of the above holds for

complex projective space, too.
The complex projective
line CP1 is an example of
a Riemann surface.

The covering by the above open

subsets also shows that
projective space is an algebraic
variety (or scheme), it is covered
by n + 1 affine n-spaces. The
construction of projective
scheme is an instance of
the Proj construction.

[edit]Projective
space
and affine space
 Example for Bézout's theorem

There are some advantages of

the projective space
against affine
space (e.g. RPn vs. Rn). For
these reasons it is important to
know when a given manifold or
variety is projective, i.e. embeds
into (is a closed subset of)
projective space. (Very) ample
line bundles are designed to
tackle this question.

Note that a projective space can

be formed by the projectivization
of a vector space, as lines
through the origin, but cannot be
formed from an affinespace
without a choice of basepoint.
That is, affine spaces are open
subspaces of projective spaces,
which are quotients of vector
spaces.
  Projective space is
a compact topological
space, affine space is not.
Therefore, Liouville's
theorem applies to show
that every holomorphic
function on CPn is constant.
Another consequence is, for
example,
that integrating functions or
differential forms on Pn does
not cause convergence
issues.

 On a projective complex
manifold X, cohomology gro
ups of coherent sheaves F

H∗(X, F)

are finitely generated.

(The above example

is ,
the zero-th
cohomology of the
sheaf of holomorphic
functions). In the
parlance of algebraic
geometry, projective
space is proper. The
above results hold in
this context, too.

 For complex projective

space, every complex
submanifold X ⊂ CPn (i.e., a
manifold cut out
by holomorphic equations) is
necessarily an algebraic
variety (i.e., given
by polynomial equations).
 This is Chow's theorem, it
allows the direct use of
algebraic-geometric
methods for these ad hoc
analytically defined objects.

 As outlined above, lines

in P2 or more
generally hyperplanes in Pn
always do intersect. This
extends to non-linear
objects, as well:
appropriately defining the
degree of an algebraic
curve, which is roughly the
degree of the polynomials
needed to define the curve
(see Hilbert polynomial), it is
true (over an algebraically
closed field k) that any two
projective
curves C1 and C2 ⊂ Pkn of
degree e and f intersect in
exactly e·f points, counting
them
with multiplicities (see Bézo
ut's theorem). This is
applied, for example, in
defining a group structure on
the points of an elliptic
curve, like y2 = x3−x+1. The
degree of an elliptic curve is
3. Consider the line x = 1,
which intersects the curve
(inside affine space) exactly
twice, namely in (1, 1) and
(1, −1). However, inside P2,
the projective closure of the
 curve is given by the
homogeneous equation

y2·z = x3−x·z2+z3,

which intersects the

line (given
inside P2 by x = z) in
three points: [1: 1: 1],
[1: −1: 1]
(corresponding to the
two points mentioned
above), and [0: 1: 0].

 Any projective group variety,

i.e. a projective variety,
whose points form an
abstract group, is
necessarily an abelian
variety, i.e. the group
operation is commutative.
Elliptic curves are examples
for abelian varieties. The
commutativity fails for non-
projective group varieties, as
the example GLn(k)
(the general linear group)
shows.
[edit]Axiomsfor
projective space

A projective space S can be

defined abstractly as a set P (the
set of points), together with a
set L of subsets of P (the set of
lines), satisfying these axioms :

 Each two distinct

points p and q are in exactly
one line.
 Veblen's axiom:
If a, b, c, d are distinct points
and the lines
through ab and cd meet,
then so do the lines
through ac and bd.

 Any line has at least 3 points

on it.

The last axiom eliminates

reducible cases that can be
written as a disjoint union of
projective spaces together with
2-point lines joining any two
points in distinct projective
spaces. More abstractly, it can
be defined as an incidence
structure (P,L,I), consisting of a
set P of points, a set L of lines,
and an incidence
relation I stating which points lie
on which lines.

A subspace of the projective

space is a subset X, such that
any line containing two points
of X is a subset of X. The full
space and the empty space are
subspaces.

The geometric dimension of the

space is said to be n if that is the
largest number for which there is
a strictly ascending chain of
subspaces of this form:

[edit]Classification
 The Fano plane

 Dimension 0 (no lines)

The space is a single
point.

 Dimension 1 (Exactly
one line) All points lie
on the unique line.

 Dimension 2 (There
are at least 2 lines,
and any two lines
meet) The definition of
a projective space
for n = 2 is equivalent
with that of aprojective
plane. These are much
harder to classify, as
not all of them are
isomorphic with
a PG(d, K).
The Desarguesian
planes satisfyingDesar
gues's theorem are
projective planes over
division rings, but
there are many non-
Desarguesian planes.
  Dimension at least 3
(There are 2 non-
intersecting
lines.) Veblen & Young
(1965) proved
the Veblen-Young
theorem that if the
dimensionn ≥ 3, every
projective space is
isomorphic with
a PG(n, K), the n-
dimensional projective
space over
some division ring K.

There are

1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 4, 0, … (sequence A001231 in OEIS)

projective planes of
order 2, 3, 4, …, 10.
The numbers beyond
this are very hard to
calculate.

The smallest
projective plane is
the Fano plane,
PG[2,2] with 7 points
and 7 lines.

[edit]Morphism
s

Injective linear
maps T ∈ L(V,W)
between two vector
spaces V and W over
the same
field k induce
mappings of the
corresponding
projective spaces via

where v is a
non-zero
element
of V and [...]
denotes the
equivalence
classes of a
vector under
the defining
identification of
the respective
projective
spaces. Since
members of the
equivalence
class differ by a
scalar factor,
and linear
maps preserve
scalar factors,
this induced
map is well-
defined. (If T is
not injective, it
will have a null
space larger
than {0}; in this
case the
meaning of the
class of T(v) is
problematic
if v is non-zero
and in the null
space. In this
case one
obtains a so-
called rational
map, see
also birational
geometry).

Two linear
maps S and T i
n L(V,W)
induce the
same map
between P(V)
and P(W) if and
only if they
differ by a
scalar multiple
of the identity,
that is
if T=λS for
some λ ≠ 0.
Thus if one
identifies the
scalar multiples
of the identity
map with the
underlying field,
the set of k-
linear morphis
ms from P(V)
to P(W) is
simply P(L(V,W
)).

The automorphi
sms P(V)
→ P(V) can be
described more
concretely. (We
deal only with
 automorphisms
preserving the
base field k).
Using the
notion
of sheaves
generated by
global sections,
it can be shown
that any
algebraic (not
necessarily
linear)
automorphism
has to be
linear, i.e.
coming from a
(linear)
automorphism
of the vector
space V. The
latter form
thegroup GL(V)
. By identifying
maps which
differ by a
scalar, one
concludes

Aut(P(V)) = Aut(V)/k∗ = GL(V)/k∗ =: PGL(V),

the quotie
nt
group of
GL(V)
modulo
the
matrices
which are
scalar
 multiples
of the
identity.
(These
matrices
form
the center
of
Aut(V)).
The
groups P
GL are
called proj
ective
linear
groups.
The
automorp
hisms of
the
complex
projective
line CP1 a
re
called Mö
bius
transform
ations.

[edit]Ge
neraliz
ations

dimensio
n

The projective space, being the "space" of all one-dimensional linear

subspaces of a given vector space V is generalized to Grassmannian
manifold, which is parametrizing higher-dimensional subspaces (of
some fixed dimension) of V.
 seq
uen
ce
of
sub
spa
ces

More generally flag manifold is the space of flags, i.e. chains of linear
subspaces of V.

o
t
h
e
r
s
u
b
v
a
ri
e
ti
e
s

Even more generally, moduli spaces parametrize objects such

as elliptic curves of a given kind.

other
rings

Generalizing to rings (rather than fields) yields inversive ring geometry

patching

Patching projective spaces together yields projective space bundles.

Severi-Brauer
varieties are algeb
raic varieties over
a field k which
become
isomorphic to
projective spaces
after an extension
of the base field k

Projective spaces
are special cases
of toric varieties.
Another
generalisation
are weighted
projective spaces

[edit]See also
[edit]Generali
zations
 Grassmannia
n manifold

 Inversive ring
geometry

 Space
(mathematics
[edit]Projectiv
e geometry
 projective
transformatio

 projective
representatio
[edit]Related

 Geometric
algebra
[edit]Referen
ces
 Afanas'ev,
V.V.
(2001), "proje
ctive space",
in
Hazewinkel,
 Michiel, Ency
clopaedia of
Mathematics,
Springer, ISB
N 978-
1556080104

 Beutelspache
, Albrecht;
Rosenbaum,
Ute
(1998), Proje
tive geometry
from
foundations to
applications,
Cambridge
University
Press, MR16
9468, ISBN 9
78-0-521-
48277-6; 978
0-521-48364-
3

 Coxeter,
Harold Scott
MacDonald (1
974), Projecti
ve geometry,
Toronto, Ont.
University of
Toronto
Press, MR03
6652, ISBN 0
802021042, O
CLC 977732

 Dembowski,
P.
 (1968), Finite
geometries, E
rgebnisse der
Mathematik
und ihrer
Grenzgebiete
Band 44,
Berlin, New
York: Springe
-Verlag, M
R0233275, IS
BN 35406178
68

 Greenberg,
M.J.; Euclidea
n and non-
Euclidean
geometries,
2nd ed.
Freeman
(1980).

 Hartshorne,
Robin (1977)
Algebraic
Geometry,
Berlin, New
York: Springe
-Verlag, M
R0463157, IS
BN 978-0-
387-90244-9,
esp. chapters
I.2, I.7, II.5,
and II.7

 Hilbert, D. an
Cohn-Vossen
S.; Geometry
 and the
imagination,
2nd ed.
Chelsea
(1999).

 Veblen,
Oswald;
Young, John
Wesley
(1965), Proje
tive geometry
Vols. 1, 2,
Blaisdell
Publishing
Co. Ginn and
Co. New
York-Toronto
London, MR0
179666 (Rep
nt of 1910
edition)
[edit]External
links
 Weisstein,
Eric W.,
"Projective
Space"
from MathWo
ld.

 http://planetm
ath.org/encyc
opedia/Projec
iveSpace.htm

 Projective
Planes of
Small Order
 Categories: Proje
tive geometry

• New
features

• Log in /
create
account
• Article
• Discussio
n
• Read
• Edit
• View
history
Top of Form

Bottom of Form
• Main
page
• Conten
ts
• Featur
ed
conten
t
• Curren
t
events
• Rando
m
article
• Donate
Interacti
on
• Help
• Abo
ut
Wiki
pedi
a
• Com
muni
ty
port
al
• Rec
ent
 chan
ges
• Cont
act
Wiki
pedi
a
Toolbox
Print/ex
port
Langua
ges
• ‫العربي‬
‫ة‬
• Cata
là
• Deut
sch
• Fran
çais
• 한국
어
• Italia
no
• ‫עבר‬
‫ית‬
• Lum
baar
t
• Ned
erlan
ds
• 日本
語
• Pols
ki
• Port
uguê
s
• Русс
кий
• Slov
enči
na
• Slov
enšč
ina
• Укра
їнсь
ка
• This page

was last
modified
on 13
October
2010 at
14:59.
• Text is

available
under
the Creativ
e
Commons
Attribution-
ShareAlike
License;
additional
terms may
apply.
See Terms
of Use for
details.
Wikipedia
® is a
registered
trademark
of
the Wikime
dia
Foundation
, Inc., a
non-profit
organizatio
n.
• Contact us

• Privacy

policy

• About

Wikipedia
• Disclaimer