Algebraic geometry over the complex numbers (Q649181)

As the author points out, this introduction to complex algebraic geometry evolved from various courses taught by him at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA. Accordingly, this textbook is intended for graduate level courses in algebraic geometry over the complex numbers, thereby combining the study of algebraic varieties with concepts and methods from complex analysis, differential geometry, and topology. Indeed, much of the fascination of the subject stems from the rich interplay of these various techniques and viewpoints, with sheaf theory and sheaf cohomology serving as their unifying language. As complex algebraic geometry is a particularly vast, for the beginner perhaps even daunting terrain in modern mathematics, and as the book under review aims to be both a first introduction and an invitation to the subject, the author has tried to maintain a reasonable balance between rigor, intuition, and completeness, without trying to cover everything or to prove every detail. Assuming only a mastery of the standard graduate courses in algebra, analysis, and topology, a number of topics covering additional background material for complex algebraic geometry are included for the convenience of the reader. As for the contents, the book is divided into five (somewhat independent) parts with slightly different goals. Part I is titled ``Introduction through Examples'' and consists only of Chapter 1, which gives an informal introduction to plane algebraic curves with many concrete examples. Part II comes with the heading ``Sheaves and Geometry'' and contains the subsequent six chapters, in which analytic and algebraic approaches to geometry are developed in parallel. Chapter 2 discusses sheaves of functions, real and complex manifolds, algebraic varieties, tangent spaces, differential forms, vector fields, bundles, and in particular compact complex manifolds and varieties. Chapter 3 deals with general sheaf theory, affine schemes, schemes and gluing, sheaves of modules, line bundles on projective space, direct and inverse images of sheaves, and sheaves of differentials. Chapter 4 develops sheaf cohomology, including flasque sheaves, soft sheaves, and the Mayer-Vietoris sequence in sheaf cohomology. Chapter 5 is devoted to De Rham cohomology on \(C^\infty\)-manifolds, with acyclic resolutions, De Rham's Theorem, Künneth's formula, Poincaré duality, Gysin maps, the fundamental class, and the Lefschetz trace formula as main topics. Chapter 6 gives a brief introduction to Riemann surfaces, explaining the genus, the notion of \(\overline\partial\)-cohomology, projective embeddings, function fields, automorphisms of compact Riemann surfaces, modular forms, modular curves, and Picard's Little Theorem along the way. Chapter 7 describes simplicial methods for concrete cohomological computations, thereby touching upon simplicial and singular cohomology, the cohomology of projective spaces, Čech cohomology, Čech versus sheaf cohomology, and the notion of first Chern class. Part III comprises the Chapters 8--14 and provides the foundations of Hodge theory. While Chapter 8 discusses the Hodge Theorem for Riemannian manifolds, together with harmonic forms and the heat equation, Chapter 9 turns toward the Hodge theory for complex manifolds, including Dolbeault's Theorem and the example of complex tori. Chapter 10 deals with Kähler metrics, Kähler manifolds, their Hodge decomposition, Picard groups of complex manifolds, and the Lefschetz \((1,1)\)-Theorem. The general theory of the previous chapters is illustrated by a little algebraic surface theory in Chapter 11, where the Néron-Severi group, the Riemann-Roch Theorem, the Hodge Index Theorem, and fibered surfaces are the main topics. Chapter 12 turns to the purely algebraic aspects of the Hodge decomposition and the related homological methods. Weighted pure Hodge structures, their Hodge filtration, the canonical Hodge decomposition in its homological setting as well as explicit applications to compact Kähler manifolds, Moishezon manifolds, hypercohomology, the holomorphic De Rham complex on a \(C^\infty\)-manifold, the Hodge-Deligne decomposition for the complement of a smooth hypersurface in a projective smooth variety, and Kodaira's Vanishing Theorem are explained in the six sections of this chapter. A brief detour is made in Chapter 13, where some aspects of the topology of families of algebraic varieties are touched upon, including Ehresmann's theorem on proper submersions of connected \(C^\infty\)-manifolds, a formal treatment of monodromy via local systems, and the computation of the first Betti number of an elliptic surface. A deeper study of the topology of complex algebraic varieties is presented in Chapter 14, where the celebrated Hard Lefschetz Theorem, the Weak Lefschetz Theorem, W. Barth's variation of the latter, the classical method of Lefschetz pencils, and some concrete applications to smooth projective varieties are discussed. Part IV is devoted to further applications of Hodge theory, on the one hand, and to coherent sheaves and their cohomology on the other. Chapter 15 describes coherent sheaves on affine schemes and on \(\mathbb{P}^n\), together with a first outline of Serré's GAGA principle and Chow's Theorem, while Chapter 16 considers the cohomology of coherent sheaves and the corresponding cohomological part of Serré's GAGA principle. Chapter 17 turns to the practical matter of computing Hodge numbers for special classes of varieties such as projective spaces, hypersurfaces, and double covers, thereby applying the GAGA principle and other tools developed in the earlier parts of the book. Chapter 18, the penultimate chapter of the text, illuminates the deformation-theoretic aspects of Hodge theory. Along the way, the author discusses families of algebraic varieties via schemes, the semi-continuity property of coherent cohomology, the theorem of Kodaira-Spencer on the deformation invariance of Hodge numbers of smooth complex varieties, and the behavior of the Picard number under deformations. This chapter ends with the Noether-Lefschetz Theorem, which clarifies the situation for general surfaces in \(\mathbb{P}^3_{\mathbb{C}}\). Finally, Part V of the book is formed by the concluding Chapter 19, which comes with the title ``Analogies and Conjectures''. Starting by briefly summarizing the results of A. Weil, A. Grothendieck, and P. Deligne on algebraic varieties over finite fields, the author turns then to the Weil conjectures and their transcendental analogues (after J.-P. Serre). Also, some of the related conjectures by A. Grothendieck and W. V. D. Hodge are explained, which leads the reader to some of the deepest open problems in current algebraic geometry. Each of the sections in this book ends with a series of exercises, most of which complement the respective material effectively, often by asking for carrying out proofs of results mentioned in the course of the text. There is a very rich bibliography of 122 references at the end of the book, accompanied by a just as carefully arranged index. Altogether, this book provides a very lucid, vivid, and versatile first introduction to algebraic geometry, with strong emphasis on its transcendental aspects. The author provides a broad panoramic view of the subject, illustrated with numerous instructive examples and interlarded with a wealth of hints for further reading. Indeed, the balance between rigor, intuition, and completeness in the presentation of the material is absolutely reasonable for such an introductory course book, and in this regard it may serve as an excellent guide to the great standard texts in the field, in particular to the two-volume monograph ``Hodge theory and complex algebraic geometry: I'' by \textit{C. Voisin} [Cambridge Studies in Advanced Mathematics. 76. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ix, 322 p. (2002; Zbl 1005.14002) and Hodge theory and complex algebraic geometry: II. Cambridge Studies in Advanced Mathematics. 77. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ix, 351 p. (2003;1032.14002)].