This book and the following second volume is an introduction into modern algebraic geometry. In the first volume the methods of homological algebra, theory of sheaves, and sheaf cohomology are developed. These methods are indispensable for modern algebraic geometry, but they are also fundamental for other branches of mathematics and of great interest in their own. In the last chapter of volume I these concepts are applied to the theory of compact Riemann surfaces. In this chapter the author makes clear how influential the ideas of Abel, Riemann and Jacobi were and that many of the modern methods have been anticipated by them.

This second volume introduces the concept of shemes, reviews some commutative algebra and introduces projective schemes. The finiteness theorem for coherent sheaves is proved, here again the techniques of homological algebra and sheaf cohomology are needed. In the last two chapters, projective curves over an arbitrary ground field are discussed, the theory of Jacobians is developed, and the existence of the Picard scheme is proved. Finally, the author gives some outlook into further developments- for instance étale cohomology- and states some fundamental theorems.

A self-contained introduction to logarithmic geometry, a key tool for analyzing compactification and degeneration in algebraic geometry.

This book introduces the reader to modern algebraic geometry. It presents Grothendieck's technically demanding language of schemes that is the basis of the most important developments in the last fifty years within this area. A systematic treatment and motivation of the theory is emphasized, using concrete examples to illustrate its usefulness. Several examples from the realm of Hilbert modular surfaces and of determinantal varieties are used methodically to discuss the covered techniques. Thus the reader experiences that the further development of the theory yields an ever better understanding of these fascinating objects. The text is complemented by many exercises that serve to check the comprehension of the text, treat further examples, or give an outlook on further results. The volume at hand is an introduction to schemes. To get startet, it requires only basic knowledge in abstract algebra and topology. Essential facts from commutative algebra are assembled in an appendix. It will be complemented by a second volume on the cohomology of schemes.

This book is a timely survey of much of the algebra developed during the last several centuries including its applications to algebraic geometry and its potential use in geometric modeling. The present volume makes an ideal textbook for an abstract algebra course, while the forthcoming sequel. Lectures on Algebra II, will serve as a textbook for a linear algebra course. The author's fondness for algebraic geometry shows up in both volumes, and his recent preoccupation with the applications of group theory to the calculation of Galois groups is evident in the second volume which contains more local rings and more algebraic geometry. Both books are based on the author's lectures at Purdue University over the last few years.

An introduction to abstract algebraic geometry, with the only prerequisites being results from commutative algebra, which are stated as needed, and some elementary topology. More than 400 exercises distributed throughout the book offer specific examples as well as more specialised topics not treated in the main text, while three appendices present brief accounts of some areas of current research. This book can thus be used as textbook for an introductory course in algebraic geometry following a basic graduate course in algebra. Robin Hartshorne studied algebraic geometry with Oscar Zariski and David Mumford at Harvard, and with J.-P. Serre and A. Grothendieck in Paris. He is the author of "Residues and Duality", "Foundations of Projective Geometry", "Ample Subvarieties of Algebraic Varieties", and numerous research titles.

How does an algebraic geometer studying secant varieties further the understanding of hypothesis tests in statistics? Why would a statistician working on factor analysis raise open problems about determinantal varieties? Connections of this type are at the heart of the new field of "algebraic statistics". In this field, mathematicians and statisticians come together to solve statistical inference problems using concepts from algebraic geometry as well as related computational and combinatorial techniques. The goal of these lectures is to introduce newcomers from the different camps to algebraic statistics. The introduction will be centered around the following three observations: many important statistical models correspond to algebraic or semi-algebraic sets of parameters; the geometry of these parameter spaces determines the behaviour of widely used statistical inference procedures; computational algebraic geometry can be used to study parameter spaces and other features of statistical models.