Let and
be subvarieties of complementary
dimensions in a projective
space
, and suppose that their intersection consists of
finitely many points. Their algebraic geometry intersection number is
where is the local intersection multiplicity
at
. A transversal
intersection point has multiplicity 1, while a tangency can have multiplicity
greater than 1. In the Chow ring, the number is the
degree of the intersection product of the two cycle classes (Fulton 1998, Shafarevich
2013).