The theory of analytic functions of several complex variables enjoyed a period of remarkable development in the middle part of the twentieth century. This title intends to provide an extensive introduction to the Oka-Cartan theory and some of its applications, and to the general theory of analytic spaces.

I - Entire functions of several complex variables constitute an important and original chapter in complex analysis. The study is often motivated by certain applications to specific problems in other areas of mathematics: partial differential equations via the Fourier-Laplace transformation and convolution operators, analytic number theory and problems of transcen dence, or approximation theory, just to name a few. What is important for these applications is to find solutions which satisfy certain growth conditions. The specific problem defines inherently a growth scale, and one seeks a solution of the problem which satisfies certain growth conditions on this scale, and sometimes solutions of minimal asymp totic growth or optimal solutions in some sense. For one complex variable the study of solutions with growth conditions forms the core of the classical theory of entire functions and, historically, the relationship between the number of zeros of an entire function f(z) of one complex variable and the growth of If I (or equivalently log If I) was the first example of a systematic study of growth conditions in a general setting. Problems with growth conditions on the solutions demand much more precise information than existence theorems. The correspondence between two scales of growth can be interpreted often as a correspondence between families of bounded sets in certain Frechet spaces. However, for applications it is of utmost importance to develop precise and explicit representations of the solutions.

The first survey of its kind, written by internationally known, outstanding experts who developed substantial parts of the field. The book contains an introduction written by Remmert, describing the history of the subject, and is very useful to graduate students and researchers in complex analysis, algebraic geometry and differential geometry.

This volume of the EMS contains four survey articles on analytic spaces. They are excellent introductions to each respective area. Starting from basic principles in several complex variables each article stretches out to current trends in research. Graduate students and researchers will find a useful addition in the extensive bibliography at the end of each article.

The present book grew out of introductory lectures on the theory offunctions of several variables. Its intent is to make the reader familiar, by the discussion of examples and special cases, with the most important branches and methods of this theory, among them, e.g., the problems of holomorphic continuation, the algebraic treatment of power series, sheaf and cohomology theory, and the real methods which stem from elliptic partial differential equations. In the first chapter we begin with the definition of holomorphic functions of several variables, their representation by the Cauchy integral, and their power series expansion on Reinhardt domains. It turns out that, in l:ontrast ~ 2 there exist domains G, G c en to the theory of a single variable, for n with G c G and G "# G such that each function holomorphic in G has a continuation on G. Domains G for which such a G does not exist are called domains of holomorphy. In Chapter 2 we give several characterizations of these domains of holomorphy (theorem of Cartan-Thullen, Levi's problem). We finally construct the holomorphic hull H(G} for each domain G, that is the largest (not necessarily schlicht) domain over en into which each function holomorphic on G can be continued.

We consider the basic problems, notions and facts in the theory of entire functions of several variables, i. e. functions J(z) holomorphic in the entire n space en (i. e. JEH( 1 variables, as in the case n = 1, a central theme deals with questions of growth of functions and the distribu tion of their zeros. However, there are significant differences between the cases of one and several variables. In the first place there is the fact that for n 1 the zero set of an entire function is not discrete and therefore one has no analogue of a tool such as the canonical Weierstrass product, which is fundamental in the case n = 1. Second, for n> 1 there exist several different natural ways of exhausting the space

Emphasizing integral formulas, the geometric theory of pseudoconvexity, estimates, partial differential equations, approximation theory, inner functions, invariant metrics, and mapping theory, this title is intended for the student with a background in real and complex variable theory, harmonic analysis, and differential equations.