Courbes semi-stables et groupe fondamental en geometrie algebrique: Luminy, Decembre 1998

This volume contains detailed expositions of talks given during an instructional conference held at Luminy in December 1998, which was devoted to classical and recent results concerning the fundamental group of algebraic curves, especially over finite and local fields. The scientific guidance of the conference was supplied by M. Raynaud, a leading expert in the field. The purpose of this volume is twofold. Firstly, it gives an account of basic results concerning rigid geometry, stable curve...