Some recent results in the area of non-complete algebraic varieties (Q2304121)

The paper under review starts with a brief description of the Enriques-Kodaira classification of minimal algebraic surfaces depending on their Kodaira dimension \(\kappa(X)\). (In algebraic geometry, the Kodaira dimension \(\kappa(X)\) measures the size of the canonical model of a projective variety \(X\).) The authors state that it is a great surprise that most of these results have close analogues in the theory of non-complete surface theory and it was the extraordinary intuition of Iitaka to introduce the notion of logarithmic Kodaira dimension, \(\bar{\kappa}(V)\), of a smooth quasi-projective variety \(V\). The main contribution of the paper under review is the description of the basic theory of non-complete algebraic varieties and related commutative algebra developed by Japanese algebraic geometers and some of the main contributions of Indian mathematicians in this area during the last ten years. The survey includes results that deal with \(\mathbb{Q}\)-homology planes, log del Pezzo surfaces, \(\mathbb{A}^1\)- and \(\mathbb{A}^{1\ast}\)-fibrations on affine varieties, actions of the additive group \((\mathbb{C},+)\) on affine varieties, locally nilpotent derivations on commutative rings. A list of unsolved problems closes the paper.