Quasi-algebraically Closed Field

Quasi-algebraically Closed Field

In mathematics, a field F is called quasi-algebraically closed (or C₁) if every non-constant homogeneous polynomial P over F has a non-trivial zero provided the number of its variables is more than its degree. The idea of quasi-algebraically closed fields was investigated by C. C. Tsen, a student of Emmy Noether in a 1936 paper; and later in the 1951 Princeton University dissertation of Serge Lang. The idea itself is attributed to Lang's advisor Emil Artin.

Formally, if P is a non-constant homogeneous polynomial in variables

X₁, ..., X_N,

and of degree d satisfying

d < N

then it has a non-trivial zero over F; that is, for some x_i in F, not all 0, we have

P(x₁, ..., x_N) = 0.

In geometric language, the hypersurface defined by P, in projective space of dimension N − 1, then has a point over F.