No label defined (Q4517540)

There are certainly various methodological approaches to introduce undergraduate students into the fundamentals of algebraic geometry. Which way a considerate teacher chooses, be it a more commutative-algebraic, complex-analytical, or projective-geometrical approach, will depend on both the respective background knowledge of his students and the goal he finally wants to reach by his introductory course. Also, the personal mathematical taste of the teacher as well as his compassion for freshmen in this field might play a decisive role in choosing the individually ``right'' strategy for teaching this utmost polymorphic and interwoven subject. Each of these possible approaches has its specific advantages and disadvantages, in regard of both providing maximum motivation and achieving reasonable depth and panoramic breadth; yet whatever strategy is chosen, from a certain point on, one is more or less compelled to combine those different aspects anyway. Compared to the huge number of excellent advanced and comprehensive textbooks on algebraic geometry, there are only very few really good, modern and suitable ``primers'' in undergraduate algebraic geometry treating the subject in appropriate generality. Of course, there is quite a large number of great texts on plane algebraic curves, sometimes combining their various fascinating aspects in a masterly manner, but when it comes to really introductory textbooks on multidimensional algebraic geometry, especially to those which can be continually used as class-room notes for a one-semester introductory course, then the choice becomes rather limited. The book under review enhances the possibilities of choice in just this regard. The text grew out of a course on algebraic geometry which the author has taught repeatedly at the University of Hannover, Germany, and which was designed for undergraduate students who had completed their courses in basic algebra and complex functions of one variable. Without assuming any additional mathematical prerequisites, this text provides a first introduction to algebraic geometry by combining the various methodological approaches, from the beginning on and throughout in the progress of the exposition, thereby skillfully stressing the permanent interplay of general theory, concrete examples, and striking applications. The book covers as much material as can be taught in a one-semester course of four hours per week, that is, for German standards, within about forty-five full hours altogether. Apart from aiming at providing a profound, self-contained introduction to elementary (i.e., non-cohomological) general algebraic geometry for beginners in the field, the author also intended to prepare the reader for studying the more advanced theory by means of the various excellent standard texts on higher modern algebraic geometry. As for the contents of the book, the material is developed in seven chapters. Chapter 0, the introduction to the book, starts with typical examples of polynomial equations and their solution sets in affine space. The focus is on plane curves, their possibly existing parametrizations and, in particular, on families of elliptic curves. It is already in this place that the author illustrates both the algebraic and complex-analytic aspects of elliptic curves over \(\mathbb{C}\), together with the topology of one-dimensional complex tori. Chapter I provides the basic concepts and theorems from elementary affine algebraic geometry. Affine sets, the Zariski topology, regular maps, coordinate rings, morphisms of affine sets, rational functions and maps, function fields, and the categorical interpretation are explained in full detail, together with the related algebraic tools such as Hilbert's Nullstellensatz, the Noether normalization lemma, separable field extensions, and localization of rings. Projective varieties are treated in chapter II. Along with the allied theory of graded rings and ideals, this chapter also develops the fundamentals of birational maps and gives many important examples of them (Segre maps, Cremona transformations, blowing-ups, etc.). Chapter III gives a brief account on smooth and singular points in affine or projective varieties, mainly by using the intuitive concept of tangent space at a point, turns then to the algebraic characterization of the dimension of a variety via its function field, and concludes with an example for the resolution of a singularity by means of blowing-up. Chapter IV is entitled ``Plane cubic curves'' and culminates, after the discussion of intersection multiplicities for projective plane curves, in the classification theorem for smooth plane curves \(\text{(char} (k)\neq 2,3)\) by using Weierstrass normal forms of them. This comes along with the complex-analytical counterpart of classifying one-dimensional complex tori via their absolute invariant, with the natural group law on an elliptic curve, Hesse pencils, and with the proof of the rationality of singular plane cubics. Chapter V turns, just in the vein of the author's ``example-and-application-driven'' methodological strategy, to the topic of smooth cubic surfaces in projective 3-space. The author demonstrates the celebrated theorem on the existence of 27 lines in those surfaces, admittedly following the unsurpassedly elegant and simple exposition given by \textit{M. Reid} in the \S 7 of his (comparable) introductory textbook [``Undergraduate algebraic geometry''. Lond. Math. Soc. Stud. Texts No. 12 (1988; Zbl 0701.14001)]. Chapter VI concludes this introduction to algebraic geometry with an introduction to the more advanced theory of (smooth projective) algebraic curves. According to the comparatively elementary character of the text, and the one-semester-course frame set for it, the author does not aim at giving a full proof of the Riemann-Roch theorem, as it is customary and indispensable for advanced books on this subject. However, he guides the reader to an understanding of its statement, importance, and consequences. After having worked through this last chapter, too, the reader should not have any problem to study higher curve theory, including the Riemann-Roch theorem, by means of the more advanced texts on algebraic geometry. Anyway, chapter VII explains divisors on curves, together with the allied local algebra, the divisor class group of a smooth curve, the proof of Bezout's theorem, and linear systems on curves. Then, formulating and discussing the Riemann-Roch theorem, the author concludes this course with applying the foregoing methods and results to projective embeddings of smooth curves by very ample divisors. The geometry of the canonical divisor on a curve is part of this discussion, and the careful geometric interpretation by means of tangents and secants is particularly nice and enlightening. Each chapter comes with a set of exercises, almost all of which concern further concrete and instructive examples illustrating the general theory, and inviting the reader to test his abstract understanding in practice. The text is relaxed and illustrated by numerous beautifully visual pictures, which is also not that common in textbooks on this subject, and the bibliography is systematically classified in view of possible further reading. In summary, the book under review provides a didactically masterly first introduction to algebraic geometry in its multifarious aspects. Together with M. Reid's great introductory textbook (loc. cit.), which admittedly acted as ``godparent'' for the present book, but offers a little bit less than the latter one, on the other hand, Hulek's primer is certainly among the very best ones, at this level, in the field of algebraic geometry.