Some results concerning the local analytic branches of an algebraic variety

Abstract

The recent progress of modern algebra in analysing, from the algebraic standpoint, the foundations of algebraic geometry, has been marked by the rapid development of what may be called ‘analytic algebra’. By this we mean the topological theories of Noetherian rings that arise when one uses ideals to define neighbourhoods; this includes, for instance, the theory of power-series rings and of local rings. In the present paper some applications are made of this kind of algebra to some problems connected with the notion of a branch of a variety at a point.