section_path: Contemporary geometry/Algebraic geometry
section_name: Algebraic geometry
paragraph_text: Algebraic geometry
  
  Algebraic geometry is fundamentally the study by means of algebraic methods of some geometrical shapes, called algebraic sets, and defined as common zeros of multivariate polynomials. Algebraic geometry became an autonomous subfield of geometry c. 1900, with a theorem called Hilbert's Nullstellensatz that establishes a strong correspondence between algebraic sets and ideals of polynomial rings. This led to a parallel development of algebraic geometry, and its algebraic counterpart, called commutative algebra. From the late 1950s through the mid-1970s algebraic geometry had undergone major foundational development, with the introduction by Alexander Grothendieck of scheme theory, which allows using topological methods, including cohomology theories in a purely algebraic context. Scheme theory allowed to solve many difficult problems not only in geometry, but also in number theory. Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem is a famous example of a long-standing problem of number theory whose solution uses scheme theory and its extensions such as stack theory. One of seven Millennium Prize problems, the Hodge conjecture, is a question in algebraic geometry.
  
  Algebraic geometry has applications in many areas, including cryptography and string theory.