A Royal Road to Algebraic Geometry

by Audun Holme

Overview

This book is about modern algebraic geometry. The title A Royal Road to Algebraic Geometry is inspired by the famous anecdote about the king asking Euclid if there really existed no simpler way for learning geometry, than to read all of his work Elements. Euclid is said to have answered: “There is no royal road to geometry!”

The book starts by explaining this enigmatic answer, the aim of the book being to argue that indeed, in some sense there is a royal road to algebraic geometry.

From a point of departure in algebraic curves, the exposition moves on to the present shape of the field, culminating with Alexander Grothendieck’s theory of schemes. Contemporary homological tools are explained.

The reader will follow a directed path leading up to the main elements of modern algebraic geometry. When the road is completed, the reader is empowered to start navigating in this immense field, and to open up the door to a wonderful field of research. The greatest scientific experience of a lifetime!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783642192241
Publisher:	Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Publication date:	10/05/2011
Edition description:	2012
Pages:	366
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.03(d)

Table of Contents

Part I Curves: 1 Affine and Projective Space.- 2 Curves in A2 k and in P2.- 3 Higher Geometry in the Projective Plane.- 4 Plane Curves and Algebra.- 5 Projective Varieties in PNk.- Part II Introduction to Grothendieck’s Theory of Schemes: 6 Categories and Functors.- 7 Constructions and Representable Functors.- 8 Abelian Categories.- 9 The Concept of Spec(A).- 10 The Category of Schemes.- 11 Properties of Morphisms of Schemes.- 12 Modules, Algebras and Bundles on a Scheme.- 13 More Properties of Morphisms, Scheme Theoretic Image and the “Sorite”.- 14 Projective Schemes and Bundles.- 15 Further Properties of Morphisms.- 16 Conormal Sheaf and Projective Bundles.- 17 Cohomology Theory on Schemes.- 18 Intersection Theory.- 19 Characteristic Classes in Algebraic Geometry.- 20 The Riemann-Roch Theorem.- 21 Some Basic constructions in the category of projective kvarieties.- 22 More on Duality.- References.- Index

Editorial Reviews

From the reviews:

“The book sets out on a project to convey the big ideas of algebraic geometry in the 21st century in a way that will be accessible and that will get to get to the big ideas (relatively) quickly. … The topics … give a good overview of modern algebraic geometry, and I think that a reader who is interested in getting quick statements of theorems will find a lot to like in this book.” (Darren Glass, The Mathematical Association of America, August, 2012)

“The book under review offers a first introduction to algebraic geometry of a special kind … . quite a variety of topics from modern algebraic geometry is presented to the reader, often in a sketchy or survey-like manner, but always with hints for further reading. The sections of the single chapters are mostly short, and the presentation is nowhere lengthy or tedious. … the book must be seen as a charming invitation to algebraic geometry, along some sort of ‘royal road’ (of pleasure and diversity).” (Werner Kleinert, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1237, 2012)

From the Publisher