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 edition has been updated to reflect recent advances in the theory of semistable coherent sheaves and their moduli spaces. The authors review changes in the field and point the reader towards further literature. An ideal text for graduate students or mathematicians with a background in algebraic geometry.
A guide to a rich and fascinating subject: algebraic curves and how they vary in families. Providing a broad but compact overview of the field, this book is accessible to readers with a modest background in algebraic geometry. It develops many techniques, including Hilbert schemes, deformation theory, stable reduction, intersection theory, and geometric invariant theory, with the focus on examples and applications arising in the study of moduli of curves. From such foundations, the book goes on to show how moduli spaces of curves are constructed, illustrates typical applications with the proofs of the Brill-Noether and Gieseker-Petri theorems via limit linear series, and surveys the most important results about their geometry ranging from irreducibility and complete subvarieties to ample divisors and Kodaira dimension. With over 180 exercises and 70 figures, the book also provides a concise introduction to the main results and open problems about important topics which are not covered in detail.
Starting in the middle of the 80s, there has been a growing and fruitful interaction between algebraic geometry and certain areas of theoretical high-energy physics, especially the various versions of string theory. Physical heuristics have provided inspiration for new mathematical definitions (such as that of Gromov-Witten invariants) leading in turn to the solution of problems in enumerative geometry. Conversely, the availability of mathematically rigorous definitions and theorems has benefited the physics research by providing the required evidence in fields where experimental testing seems problematic. The aim of this volume, a result of the CIME Summer School held in Cetraro, Italy, in 2005, is to cover part of the most recent and interesting findings in this subject.
A new and complete treatment of semi-abelian degenerations of abelian varieties, and their application to the construction of arithmetic compactifications of Siegel moduli space, with most of the results being published for the first time. Highlights of the book include a classification of semi-abelian schemes, construction of the toroidal and the minimal compactification over the integers, heights for abelian varieties over number fields, and Eichler integrals in several variables, together with a new approach to Siegel modular forms. A valuable source of reference for researchers and graduate students interested in algebraic geometry, Shimura varieties or diophantine geometry.
Berkeley Lectures on p-adic Geometry presents an important breakthrough in arithmetic geometry. In 2014, leading mathematician Peter Scholze delivered a series of lectures at the University of California, Berkeley, on new ideas in the theory of p-adic geometry. Building on his discovery of perfectoid spaces, Scholze introduced the concept of “diamonds,” which are to perfectoid spaces what algebraic spaces are to schemes. The introduction of diamonds, along with the development of a mixed-characteristic shtuka, set the stage for a critical advance in the discipline. In this book, Peter Scholze and Jared Weinstein show that the moduli space of mixed-characteristic shtukas is a diamond, raising the possibility of using the cohomology of such spaces to attack the Langlands conjectures for a reductive group over a p-adic field. This book follows the informal style of the original Berkeley lectures, with one chapter per lecture. It explores p-adic and perfectoid spaces before laying out the newer theory of shtukas and their moduli spaces. Points of contact with other threads of the subject, including p-divisible groups, p-adic Hodge theory, and Rapoport-Zink spaces, are thoroughly explained. Berkeley Lectures on p-adic Geometry will be a useful resource for students and scholars working in arithmetic geometry and number theory.
This thorough and detailed exposition is the result of an intensive month-long course on mirror symmetry sponsored by the Clay Mathematics Institute. It develops mirror symmetry from both mathematical and physical perspectives with the aim of furthering interaction between the two fields. The material will be particularly useful for mathematicians and physicists who wish to advance their understanding across both disciplines. Mirror symmetry is a phenomenon arising in string theory in which two very different manifolds give rise to equivalent physics. Such a correspondence has significant mathematical consequences, the most familiar of which involves the enumeration of holomorphic curves inside complex manifolds by solving differential equations obtained from a ``mirror'' geometry. The inclusion of D-brane states in the equivalence has led to further conjectures involving calibrated submanifolds of the mirror pairs and new (conjectural) invariants of complex manifolds: the Gopakumar-Vafa invariants. This book gives a single, cohesive treatment of mirror symmetry. Parts 1 and 2 develop the necessary mathematical and physical background from ``scratch''. The treatment is focused, developing only the material most necessary for the task. In Parts 3 and 4 the physical and mathematical proofs of mirror symmetry are given. From the physics side, this means demonstrating that two different physical theories give isomorphic physics. Each physical theory can be described geometrically, and thus mirror symmetry gives rise to a ``pairing'' of geometries. The proof involves applying $R\leftrightarrow 1/R$ circle duality to the phases of the fields in the gauged linear sigma model. The mathematics proof develops Gromov-Witten theory in the algebraic setting, beginning with the moduli spaces of curves and maps, and uses localization techniques to show that certain hypergeometric functions encode the Gromov-Witten invariants in genus zero, as is predicted by mirror symmetry. Part 5 is devoted to advanced topi This one-of-a-kind book is suitable for graduate students and research mathematicians interested in mathematics and mathematical and theoretical physics.
This monograph provides an accessible introduction to the applications of pseudoholomorphic curves in symplectic and contact geometry, with emphasis on dimensions four and three. The first half of the book focuses on McDuff's characterization of symplectic rational and ruled surfaces, one of the classic early applications of holomorphic curve theory. The proof presented here uses the language of Lefschetz fibrations and pencils, thus it includes some background on these topics, in addition to a survey of the required analytical results on holomorphic curves. Emphasizing applications rather than technical results, the analytical survey mostly refers to other sources for proofs, while aiming to provide precise statements that are widely applicable, plus some informal discussion of the analytical ideas behind them. The second half of the book then extends this program in two complementary directions: (1) a gentle introduction to Gromov-Witten theory and complete proof of the classification of uniruled symplectic 4-manifolds; and (2) a survey of punctured holomorphic curves and their applications to questions from 3-dimensional contact topology, such as classifying the symplectic fillings of planar contact manifolds. This book will be particularly useful to graduate students and researchers who have basic literacy in symplectic geometry and algebraic topology, and would like to learn how to apply standard techniques from holomorphic curve theory without dwelling more than necessary on the analytical details. This book is also part of the Virtual Series on Symplectic Geometry http://www.springer.com/series/16019
