In mathematics, the Drinfeld upper half plane is a rigid analytic space analogous to the usual upper half plane for function fields, introduced by . It is defined to be the set difference P<sup>1</sup>(C) \ P<sup>1</sup>(F<sub>âÂÂ</sub>), where F is a function field of a curve over a finite field, F<sub>âÂÂ</sub> its completion at âÂÂ, and C the completion of the algebraic closure of F<sub>âÂÂ</sub>.
The analogy with the usual upper half plane arises from the fact that the global function field F is analogous to the rational numbers Q. Then, F<sub>âÂÂ</sub> is the real numbers R and the algebraic closure of F<sub>âÂÂ</sub> is the complex numbers C (which are already complete). Finally, P<sup>1</sup>(C) is the Riemann sphere, so P<sup>1</sup>(C) \ P<sup>1</sup>(R) is the upper half plane together with the lower half plane.