An invitation to algebraic geometry (Q1581785)

Since A.~Grothendieck discovered that the foundation of algebraic geometry has to be the language of schemes it became rather hard to non-specialists to follow basic ideas of the subject as well as to get an feeling for recent research in algebraic geometry. This is in particular true for mathematicians working on complex analysis, which had and has great influence of algebraic geometry. The book under review is intended for the working mathematician who is unfamiliar with algebraic geometry but wishes to gain an appreciation of its foundations and its goals with a minimum of prerequisites. The book is not conceived as a subsitute for an introduction to algebraic geometry as given by \textit{R.~Hartshorne} [``Algebraic geometry'', Graduate Texts in Math. 52 (1977; Zbl 0367.14001)], or by \textit{I. R. Shafarevich} [``Basic algebraic geometry'', Grundlehren 213 (1974); translation from the Russian (1972; Zbl 0258.14001)], for example. It is the authors' goal to inspire the readers to undertake a more serious study of the subject, i.e. to invite them to algebraic geometry. The book grew out of a course of the first author at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) for Ph. D. students and interested mathematicians whose research is quite far removed from algebra. The text is divided into eight chapters (affine algebraic varieties, algebraic foundations, projective varieties, quasi-projective varieties, classical constructions, smoothness, birational geometry, and maps to projective space) with an appendix (sheaves and abstract algebraic varieties). Starting with the affine algebraic varieties as the zero loci of sets of polynomials the basic commutative algebra is introduced and projective and quasi-projective varieties are sketched. All the material is nicely presented. Several constructions are illustrated by instructive pictures. The chapter on classical constructions covers Veronese maps, Segre products, Grassmannians, and the Hilbert polynomial. The chapter on smoothness sketches the Jacobian criterion, smoothness in families and the Bertini theorem. The chapter `Birational geometry' explains the problem of resolution of singularities, blowing up along a subvariety, birational equivalence, and the classification problem. Most of the chapters provide some information about current research. The final chapter introduces line bundles, rational maps, and very ample line bundles from a very concrete point of view. The appendix contains a short introduction to some basic notions of modern algebraic geometry. Because of the nature of this book as an invitation it was necessary to omit several proofs and sacrifice some rigor. For all details there are references and explanations. Only a few prerequisites are presumed beyond a basic course in linear algebra. So the lectures are also intended to an interested undergraduate student. The reviewer believes that the authors convey in their invitation that the main objects in algebraic geometry and the main research questions about them are as interesting and accessible as ever, even for mathematicians far from the subject.