The Dutch Intercity Seminar on Moduli, which dates back to the early eighties, was an initiative of G. van der Geer, F. Oort and C. Peters. Through the years it became a focal point of Dutch mathematics and it gained some fame, also outside Holland, as an active biweekly research seminar. The tradition continues up to today. The present volume, with contributions of R. Dijkgraaf, C. Faber, G. van der Geer, R. Hain, E. Looijenga, and F. Oort, originates from the seminar held in 1995--96. Some of the articles here were discussed, in preliminary form, in the seminar; others are completely new. Two introductory papers, on moduli of abelian varieties and on moduli of curves, accompany the articles.

Abelian varieties and their moduli are a topic of increasing importance in today`s mathematics, applications ranging from algebraic geometry and number theory to mathematical physics. This collection of 17 refereed articles originates from the third "Texel Conference" held in 1999. Leading experts discuss and study the structure of the moduli spaces of abelian varieties and related spaces, giving an excellent view of the state of the art in this field.

This book presents lectures from a conference on "Modular Curves and Abelian Varieties'' at the Centre de Recerca Matemtica (Bellaterra, Barcelona). The articles in this volume present the latest achievements in this extremely active field and will be of interest both to specialists and to students and researchers. Many contributions focus on generalizations of the Shimura-Taniyama conjecture to varieties such as elliptic Q-curves and Abelian varieties of GL_2-type. The book also includes several key articles in the subject that do not correspond to conference lectures.

This book presents lectures from a conference on "Modular Curves and Abelian Varieties'' at the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (Bellaterra, Barcelona). The articles in this volume present the latest achievements in this extremely active field and will be of interest both to specialists and to students and researchers. Many contributions focus on generalizations of the Shimura-Taniyama conjecture to varieties such as elliptic Q-curves and Abelian varieties of GL_2-type. The book also includes several key articles in the subject that do not correspond to conference lectures.

The moduli space Mg of curves of fixed genus g – that is, the algebraic variety that parametrizes all curves of genus g – is one of the most intriguing objects of study in algebraic geometry these days. Its appeal results not only from its beautiful mathematical structure but also from recent developments in theoretical physics, in particular in conformal field theory.

This is a book aimed at researchers and advanced graduate students in algebraic geometry, interested in learning about a promising direction of research in algebraic geometry. It begins with a generalization of parts of Mumford's theory of the equations defining abelian varieties and moduli spaces. It shows through striking examples how one can use these apparently intractable systems of equations to obtain satisfying insights into the geometry and arithmetic of these varieties. It also introduces the reader to some aspects of the research of the first author into representation theory and invariant theory and their applications to these geometrical questions.