The Adjunction Formula
Suppose that X is a smooth variety and that D is a smooth divisor on X. The adjunction formula relates the canonical bundles of X and D. It is a natural isomorphism
In terms of canonical classes, it is
This formula is one of the most powerful formulas in algebraic geometry. An important tool of modern birational geometry is inversion of adjunction, which allows one to deduce results about the singularities of X from the singularities of D.
Read more about this topic: Canonical Bundle
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“Given for one instant an intelligence which could comprehend all the forces by which nature is animated and the respective positions of the beings which compose it, if moreover this intelligence were vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in the same formula both the movements of the largest bodies in the universe and those of the lightest atom; to it nothing would be uncertain, and the future as the past would be present to its eyes.”
—Pierre Simon De Laplace (17491827)