[Math] Product of affine varieties vs. product of (quasi-)projective varieties

algebraic-geometry

Suppose that $F_1,\ldots,F_r\in k[T_1,\ldots, T_n]$ and $G_1,\ldots,G_s\in k[S_1,\ldots,S_m]$ where $k$ is an algebraically closed field. Clearly $X=V(F_1,\ldots,F_r)\subseteq\mathbb A^n_k$ and $Y=V(G_1,\ldots,G_s)\subseteq\mathbb A^m_k$ are two affine varieties and $X\times Y\subseteq\mathbb A^{n+m}_k$ has a natural structure of affine variety as follows:

$$X\times Y=V(F_1,\ldots,F_r,G_1,\ldots,G_s)$$

For the product of (quasi-)projective variety we need the Segre embedding to define a structure of variety, and I don't understand the motivation. Why a straightforward argument as the above doesn't work for (quasi-)projective varieties?

Best Answer

Note that you write $X \times Y \subset \mathbb A^{m+n}$, and so you seem to be using almost without thinking about the isomorphism $\mathbb A^m\times \mathbb A^n \cong \mathbb A^{m+n}$.

Okay, now for your question:

Forget about the equations, and just consider $\mathbb P^m \times \mathbb P^n$. What straightforward way might you suggest to think of this as a variety?

Once you can do this case, you can do any quasi-projective case. So you should think about the role of the Segre embedding in this case.