János Kollár

A pioneering new nonlinear approach to a fundamental question in algebraic geometryOne of the crowning achievements of nineteenth-century mathematics was the proof that the geometry of lines in space uniquely determines the Cartesian coordinates, up to a linear ambiguity. What Determines an Algebraic Variety? develops a nonlinear version of this theory, offering the first nonlinear generalization of the seminal work of Veblen and Young in a century. While the book uses cutting-edge techniques, the statements of its theorems would have been understandable a century ago; despite this, the results are totally unexpected. Putting geometry first in algebraic geometry, the book provides a new perspective on a classical theorem of fundamental importance to a wide range of fields in mathematics. Starting with basic observations, the book shows how to read off various properties of a variety from its geometry. The results get stronger as the dimension increases. The main result then says that a normal projective variety of dimension at least 4 over a field of characteristic 0 is completely determined by its Zariski topological space. There are many open questions in dimensions 2 and 3, and in positive characteristic.

A pioneering new nonlinear approach to a fundamental question in algebraic geometryOne of the crowning achievements of nineteenth-century mathematics was the proof that the geometry of lines in space uniquely determines the Cartesian coordinates, up to a linear ambiguity. What Determines an Algebraic Variety? develops a nonlinear version of this theory, offering the first nonlinear generalization of the seminal work of Veblen and Young in a century. While the book uses cutting-edge techniques, the statements of its theorems would have been understandable a century ago; despite this, the results are totally unexpected. Putting geometry first in algebraic geometry, the book provides a new perspective on a classical theorem of fundamental importance to a wide range of fields in mathematics. Starting with basic observations, the book shows how to read off various properties of a variety from its geometry. The results get stronger as the dimension increases. The main result then says that a normal projective variety of dimension at least 4 over a field of characteristic 0 is completely determined by its Zariski topological space. There are many open questions in dimensions 2 and 3, and in positive characteristic.

This book establishes the moduli theory of stable varieties, giving the optimal approach to understanding families of varieties of general type. Starting from the Deligne–Mumford theory of the moduli of curves and using Mori's program as a main tool, the book develops the techniques necessary for a theory in all dimensions. The main results give all the expected general properties, including a projective coarse moduli space. A wealth of previously unpublished material is also featured, including Chapter 5 on numerical flatness criteria, Chapter 7 on K-flatness, and Chapter 9 on hulls and husks.

The aim of this book is to study various geometric properties and algebraic invariants of smooth projective varieties with infinite fundamental groups. This approach allows for much interplay between methods of algebraic geometry, complex analysis, the theory of harmonic maps, and topology. Making systematic use of Shafarevich maps, a concept previously introduced by the author, this work isolates those varieties where the fundamental group influences global properties of the canonical class. The book is primarily geared toward researchers and graduate students in algebraic geometry who are interested in the structure and classification theory of algebraic varieties. There are, however, presentations of many other applications involving other topics as well--such as Abelian varieties, theta functions, and automorphic forms on bounded domains. The methods are drawn from diverse sources, including Atiyah's L2 -index theorem, Gromov's theory of Poincare series, and recent generalizations of Kodaira's vanishing theorem. Originally published in 1995. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The aim of this book is to study various geometric properties and algebraic invariants of smooth projective varieties with infinite fundamental groups. This approach allows for much interplay between methods of algebraic geometry, complex analysis, the theory of harmonic maps, and topology. Making systematic use of Shafarevich maps, a concept previously introduced by the author, this work isolates those varieties where the fundamental group influences global properties of the canonical class. The book is primarily geared toward researchers and graduate students in algebraic geometry who are interested in the structure and classification theory of algebraic varieties. There are, however, presentations of many other applications involving other topics as well--such as Abelian varieties, theta functions, and automorphic forms on bounded domains. The methods are drawn from diverse sources, including Atiyah's L2 -index theorem, Gromov's theory of Poincare series, and recent generalizations of Kodaira's vanishing theorem. Originally published in 1995. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This book gives a comprehensive treatment of the singularities that appear in the minimal model program and in the moduli problem for varieties. The study of these singularities and the development of Mori's program have been deeply intertwined. Early work on minimal models relied on detailed study of terminal and canonical singularities but many later results on log terminal singularities were obtained as consequences of the minimal model program. Recent work on the abundance conjecture and on moduli of varieties of general type relies on subtle properties of log canonical singularities and conversely, the sharpest theorems about these singularities use newly developed special cases of the abundance problem. This book untangles these interwoven threads, presenting a self-contained and complete theory of these singularities, including many previously unpublished results.

The aim of this book is to provide an introduction to the structure theory of higher dimensional algebraic varieties by studying the geometry of curves, especially rational curves, on varieties. The main applications are in the study of Fano varieties and of related varieties with lots of rational curves on them. This Ergebnisse volume provides the first systematic introduction to this field of study. The book contains a large number of examples and exercises which serve to illustrate the range of the methods and also lead to many open questions of current research.

One of the major discoveries of the last two decades of the twentieth century in algebraic geometry is the realization that the theory of minimal models of surfaces can be generalized to higher dimensional varieties. This generalization, called the minimal model program or Mori's program, has developed into a powerful tool with applications to diverse questions in algebraic geometry and beyond. This book provides the a comprehensive introduction to the circle of ideas developed around the program, the prerequisites being only a basic knowledge of algebraic geometry. It will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers working in algebraic geometry and related fields.

Resolution of singularities is a powerful and frequently used tool in algebraic geometry. In this book, Janos Kollar 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. Kollar 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.

The most basic algebraic varieties are the projective spaces, and rational varieties are their closest relatives. In many applications where algebraic varieties appear in mathematics and the sciences, we see rational ones emerging as the most interesting examples. The authors have given an elementary treatment of rationality questions using a mix of classical and modern methods. Arising from a summer school course taught by János Kollár, this book develops the modern theory of rational and nearly rational varieties at a level that will particularly suit graduate students. There are numerous examples and exercises, all of which are accompanied by fully worked out solutions, that will make this book ideal as the basis of a graduate course. It will act as a valuable reference for researchers whilst helping graduate students to reach the point where they can begin to tackle contemporary research problems.

One of the major discoveries of the last two decades in algebraic geometry is the realization that the theory of minimal models of surfaces can be generalized to higher dimensional varieties. This generalization, called the minimal model program or Mori’s program, has developed into a powerful tool with applications to diverse questions in algebraic geometry and beyond. This book provides the first comprehensive introduction to the circle of ideas developed around the program, the prerequisites being only a basic knowledge of algebraic geometry. It will be of great interest to graduate students and researchers working in algebraic geometry and related fields.

The aim of this book is to provide an introduction to the structure theory of higher dimensional algebraic varieties by studying the geometry of curves, especially rational curves, on varieties. The main applications are in the study of Fano varieties and of related varieties with lots of rational curves on them. This Ergebnisse volume provides the first systematic introduction to this field of study. The book contains a large number of examples and exercises which serve to illustrate the range of the methods and also lead to many open questions of current research.