In classical algebraic geometry, the genus–degree formula relates the degree d of an irreducible plane curve ${\displaystyle C}$ with its arithmetic genus g via the formula:

${\displaystyle g={\frac {1}{2}}(d-1)(d-2).}$

Here "plane curve" means that ${\displaystyle C}$ is a closed curve in the projective plane ${\displaystyle \mathbb {P} ^{2}}$. If the curve is non-singular the geometric genus and the arithmetic genus are equal, but if the curve is singular, with only ordinary singularities, the geometric genus is smaller. More precisely, an ordinary singularity of multiplicity r decreases the genus by ${\displaystyle {\frac {1}{2}}r(r-1)}$.^[1]

The genus–degree formula can be proven from the adjunction formula; for details, see Adjunction formula § Applications to curves.^[2]

For a non-singular hypersurface ${\displaystyle H}$ of degree d in the projective space ${\displaystyle \mathbb {P} ^{n}}$ of arithmetic genus g the formula becomes:

${\displaystyle g={\binom {d-1}{n}},\,}$

where ${\displaystyle {\tbinom {d-1}{n}}}$ is the binomial coefficient.

• Thom conjecture

• This article incorporates material from the Citizendium article "Genus degree formula", which is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License but not under the GFDL.
• Enrico Arbarello, Maurizio Cornalba, Phillip Griffiths, Joe Harris. Geometry of algebraic curves. vol 1 Springer, ISBN 0-387-90997-4, appendix A.
• Phillip Griffiths and Joe Harris, Principles of algebraic geometry, Wiley, ISBN 0-471-05059-8, chapter 2, section 1.
• Robin Hartshorne (1977): Algebraic geometry, Springer, ISBN 0-387-90244-9.
• Kulikov, Viktor S. (2001) [1994], "Genus of a curve", Encyclopedia of Mathematics, EMS Press