Galois connection. For various reasons we may not always want to work with the entire ideal corresponding to an algebraic set U. Hilbert's basis theorem implies that ideals in k[An] are always finitely generated. An algebraic set is called irreducible if it cannot be written as the union of two smaller algebraic sets. Any algebraic set is a finite union of irreducible algebraic sets and this decomposition is unique. Thus its elements are called the irreducible components of the algebraic set. An irreducible algebraic set is also called a variety. It turns out that an algebraic set is a variety if and only if it may be defined as the vanishing set of a prime ideal of the polynomial ring. Some authors do not make a clear distinction between algebraic sets and varieties and use irreducible variety to make the distinction when needed. Regular functions Just as continuous functions are the natural maps on topological spaces and smooth functions are the natural maps on differentiable manifolds, there is a natural class of functions on an algebraic set, called regular functions or polynomial functions. A regular function on an algebraic set V contained in An is the restriction to V of a regular function on An. For an algebraic set defined on the field of the complex numbers, the regular functions are smooth and even analytic. It may seem unnaturally restrictive to require that a regular function always extend to the ambient space, but it is very similar to the situation in a normal topological space, where the Tietze extension theorem guarantees that a continuous function on a closed subset always extends to the ambient topological space. Just as with the regular functions on affine space, the regular functions on V form a ring, which we denote by k[V]. This ring is called the coordinate ring of V. Since regular functions on V come from regular functions on An, there is a relationship between the coordinate rings. Specifically, if a regular function on V is the restriction of two functions f and g in k[An], then f − g is a polynomial function which is null on V and thus belongs to I(V). Thus k[V] may be identified with k[An]/I(V). Morphism of affine varieties Using regular functions from an affine variety to A1, we can define regular maps from one affine variety to another. First we will define a regular map