[Math] What fails in the Cartier <-> Weil divisor correspondence in the singular case

algebraic-geometry

I know that the following holds in much more generality, but lets say everything happens in the toric case over $\mathbb{C}$.

Setting:
Given a smooth variety $X$ then there is an isomorphism between the group of Cartier divisors of $X$ and the group of Weil divisors of $X$.
I know and understand how to come from a Weil divisor $D$ to its Cartier divisor and back.

Question:
What fails in the singular case?
I think of a Cartier divisor as a locally principal Weil divisor. Given a Weil Divisor $D$ on $X$ and let $U \subset X$ be the singular locus of $X$. My guess is, that $D|_U$ fails to be principal. But what does this exactly mean?

Best Answer

Imagine the doubly-infinite (singular) cone $x^2+y^2=z^2$ in 3-space. If we intersect with the plane $x=z$, we get a single line $x=z, y=0$, a Weil divisor. But it cannot be Cartier, since it is not locally principal at the origin; any polynomial vanishing on this line will vanish with multiplicity, or else vanish on more than one component.

Algebraically speaking, the corresponding ideal of the local ring is not principal (though its square is).

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