John Erik Fornaess

Counterexamples are remarkably effective for understanding the meaning, and the limitations, of mathematical results. Fornaess and Stensones look at some of the major ideas of several complex variables by considering counterexamples to what might seem like reasonable variations or generalizations. The first part of the book reviews some of the basics of the theory, in a self-contained introduction to several complex variables. The counterexamples cover a variety of important topics: the Levi problem, plurisubharmonic functions, Monge-Ampere equations, CR geometry, function theory, and the $\bar\partial$ equation. The book would be an excellent supplement to a graduate course on several complex variables.

The geometry of real submanifolds in complex manifolds and the analysis of their mappings belong to the most advanced streams of contemporary Mathematics. In this area converge the techniques of various and sophisticated mathematical fields such as P. D. E.s, boundary value problems, induced equations, analytic discs in symplectic spaces, complex dynamics. For the variety of themes and the surprisingly good interplaying of different research tools, these problems attracted the attention of some among the best mathematicians of these latest two decades. They also entered as a refined content of an advanced education. In this sense the five lectures of this volume provide an excellent cultural background while giving very deep insights of current research activity.

The description for this book, Recent Developments in Several Complex Variables. (AM-100), will be forthcoming.