Resolution of Singularities has long been considered as being a difficult to access area of mathematics. The more systematic and simpler proofs that have appeared in the last few years in zero characteristic now give us a much better understanding of singularities. They reveal the aesthetics of both the logical structure of the proof and the various methods used in it. The present volume is intended for readers who are not yet experts but always wondered about the intricacies of resolution. As such, it provides a gentle and quite comprehensive introduction to this amazing field. The book may tempt the reader to enter more deeply into a topic where many mysteries--especially the positive characteristic case--await to be disclosed. Titles in this series are co-published with the Clay Mathematics Institute (Cambridge, MA).

This book is an introduction to singularities for graduate students and researchers. It is said that algebraic geometry originated in the seventeenth century with the famous work Discours de la méthode pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences by Descartes. In that book he introduced coordinates to the study of geometry. After its publication, research on algebraic varieties developed steadily. Many beautiful results emerged in mathematicians’ works. Most of them were about non-singular varieties. Singularities were considered “bad” objects that interfered with knowledge of the structure of an algebraic variety. In the past three decades, however, it has become clear that singularities are necessary for us to have a good description of the framework of varieties. For example, it is impossible to formulate minimal model theory for higher-dimensional cases without singularities. Another example is that the moduli spaces of varieties have natural compactification, the boundaries of which correspond to singular varieties. A remarkable fact is that the study of singularities is developing and people are beginning to see that singularities are interesting and can be handled by human beings. This book is a handy introduction to singularities for anyone interested in singularities. The focus is on an isolated singularity in an algebraic variety. After preparation of varieties, sheaves, and homological algebra, some known results about 2-dim ensional isolated singularities are introduced. Then a classification of higher-dimensional isolated singularities is shown according to plurigenera and the behavior of singularities under a deformation is studied.

Resolution of singularities is a powerful and frequently used tool in algebraic geometry. In this book, János Kollár provides a comprehensive treatment of the characteristic 0 case. He describes more than a dozen proofs for curves, many based on the original papers of Newton, Riemann, and Noether. Kollár goes back to the original sources and presents them in a modern context. He addresses three methods for surfaces, and gives a self-contained and entirely elementary proof of a strong and functorial resolution in all dimensions. Based on a series of lectures at Princeton University and written in an informal yet lucid style, this book is aimed at readers who are interested in both the historical roots of the modern methods and in a simple and transparent proof of this important theorem.

From the ancient origins of algebraic geometry in the solution of polynomial equations, through the triumphs of algebraic geometry during the last two cen turies, intersection theory has played a central role. Since its role in founda tional crises has been no less prominent, the lack of a complete modern treatise on intersection theory has been something of an embarrassment. The aim of this book is to develop the foundations of intersection theory, and to indicate the range of classical and modern applications. Although a comprehensive his tory of this vast subject is not attempted, we have tried to point out some of the striking early appearances of the ideas of intersection theory. Recent improvements in our understanding not only yield a stronger and more useful theory than previously available, but also make it possible to devel op the subject from the beginning with fewer prerequisites from algebra and algebraic geometry. It is hoped that the basic text can be read by one equipped with a first course in algebraic geometry, with occasional use of the two appen dices. Some of the examples, and a few of the later sections, require more spe cialized knowledge. The text is designed so that one who understands the con structions and grants the main theorems of the first six chapters can read other chapters separately. Frequent parenthetical references to previous sections are included for such readers. The summaries which begin each chapter should fa cilitate use as a reference.

This book is motivated by the problem of determining the set of rational points on a variety, but its true goal is to equip readers with a broad range of tools essential for current research in algebraic geometry and number theory. The book is unconventional in that it provides concise accounts of many topics instead of a comprehensive account of just one—this is intentionally designed to bring readers up to speed rapidly. Among the topics included are Brauer groups, faithfully flat descent, algebraic groups, torsors, étale and fppf cohomology, the Weil conjectures, and the Brauer-Manin and descent obstructions. A final chapter applies all these to study the arithmetic of surfaces. The down-to-earth explanations and the over 100 exercises make the book suitable for use as a graduate-level textbook, but even experts will appreciate having a single source covering many aspects of geometry over an unrestricted ground field and containing some material that cannot be found elsewhere.

This ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF MATHEMATICS aims to be a reference work for all parts of mathe matics. It is a translation with updates and editorial comments of the Soviet Mathematical Encyclopaedia published by 'Soviet Encyclopaedia Publishing House' in five volumes in 1977-1985. The annotated translation consists of ten volumes including a special index volume. There are three kinds of articles in this ENCYCLOPAEDIA. First of all there are survey-type articles dealing with the various main directions in mathematics (where a rather fine subdivi sion has been used). The main requirement for these articles has been that they should give a reasonably complete up-to-date account of the current state of affairs in these areas and that they should be maximally accessible. On the whole, these articles should be understandable to mathematics students in their first specialization years, to graduates from other mathematical areas and, depending on the specific subject, to specialists in other domains of science, en gineers and teachers of mathematics. These articles treat their material at a fairly general level and aim to give an idea of the kind of problems, techniques and concepts involved in the area in question. They also contain background and motivation rather than precise statements of precise theorems with detailed definitions and technical details on how to carry out proofs and constructions. The second kind of article, of medium length, contains more detailed concrete problems, results and techniques.