ON AUTOMORPHISMS OF ALGEBRAIC CURVES 5

An extension p′ |p is said to be tamely ramified if e(p′ |p) > 1 and char k does
not divide e(p′ |p). If e(p′ |p) > 1 and char k does divide e(p′ |p) we say that p′ |p is
wildly ramified.
The extension F ′ /F is called ramified if there is at least one place p ∈ PF
which is ramified in F ′ /F . The extension F ′ /F is called tame if there is no place
p ∈ PF which is wildly ramified in F ′ /F .
Lemma 1. Let F ′ /F be a finite separable extension of algebraic function fields.
Then
a) p′ |p is ramified if and only if p′ ≤ Diff(F ′ /F ). Moreover, if p′ /p is ramified
then:
i) d(p′ |p) = e(p′ |p) − 1 if and only if p′ |p is tamely ramified
ii) d(p′ |p) > e(p′ |p) − 1 if and only if p′ |p is wildly ramified
b) Almost all places p ∈ PF are unramified in F ′ /F .
From now on we will use the term ”curve” and its function field interchangeably,
depending on the context. It is more convenient to talk about function fields than
curves in most cases.
2.3. Divisors and the Riemann-Roch theorem. For a given curve X de-
fined over k, a divisor D is called the formal finite sum
X
D= zp P.
p∈ΣX (k)

The set of all divisors of X is denoted by DivX (k).

2.3.1. Riemann-Roch Spaces. Define a partial ordering of elements in DivX (k)
as follows; D is effective (D ≥ 0) if zp ≥ 0 for every p, and D1 ≥ D2 if D1 − D2 ≥ 0.
The Riemann-Roch space associated to D is
L(D) = {f ∈ k(X )∗ with (f ) ≥ −D} ∪ {0}.
So the elements x ∈ L(D) are defined by the property that wp (x) ≥ −zp for all
p ∈ ΣX (k). Basic properties of valuations imply immediately that L(D) is a vector
space over k. This vector space has positive dimension if and only if there is a
function f ∈ k(X )∗ with D + (f ) ≥ 0, or equivalently, D ∼ D1 with D1 ≥ 0.
Here are some immediately obtained facts: L(0) = k and if deg(D) < 0 then
L(D) = {0}. If deg(D) = 0 then either D is a principal divisor or L(D) = {0}.
The following result is easy to prove but fundamental.
Proposition 1. Let D = D1 − D2 with Di ≥ 0. Then
dim(L(D)) ≤ deg(D1 ) + 1.
We remark that for D ∼ D′ we have L(D) ∼ L(D′ ). In particular L(D) is
a finite-dimensional k-vector space. We follow traditional conventions and denote
the dimension of L(D) by
(2) ℓ(D) := dimk (L(D)).
Computing ℓ(D) is a fundamental problem which is solved by the Riemann-Roch
Theorem. A first estimate is a generalization of the proposition above:

For all divisors D we have the inequality

ℓ(D) ≤ deg(D) + 1.