A map defined by one or more polynomials. Given a field , a polynomial map is a map
such that for all points
,
for suitable polynomials .
The zero set of
is the set of all solutions of the simultaneous equations
, and is an algebraic variety
in
.
An example of polynomial map is the th coordinate map
, defined by
for all
. In the language of set
theory, it is the projection of the Cartesian
product
onto the
th
factor.
Polynomial maps can be defined on any nonempty subset of
. If
is an affine variety, then
the set of all polynomial maps from
to
is the coordinate ring
of
. If
is an affine variety of
, then every polynomial map
induces a ring homomorphism
, defined by
. Conversely, every ring
homomorphism
determines a polynomial map
, where
.
A polynomial map
is a real-valued polynomial function. Its graph is the plane algebraic curve with
Cartesian equation
.