Synopses & Reviews
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.
Synopsis
Aims Theaimofthisbookistoprovideaguidetoarichandfascinatings- ject: algebraic curves, and how they vary in families. The revolution that the ?eld of algebraic geometry has undergone with the introd- tion of schemes, together with new ideas, techniques and viewpoints introduced by Mumford and others, have made it possible for us to understandthebehaviorofcurvesinwaysthatsimplywerenotpos- ble a half-century ago. This in turn has led, over the last few decades, to a burst of activity in the area, resolving long-standing problems and generating new and unforeseen results and questions. We hope to acquaint you both with these results and with the ideas that have made them possible. The book isn t intended to be a de?nitive reference: the subject is developing too rapidly for that to be a feasible goal, even if we had the expertise necessary for the task. Our preference has been to - cus on examples and applications rather than on foundations. When discussing techniques we ve chosen to sacri?ce proofs of some, even basic, results particularlywherewecanprovideagoodreference inordertoshowhowthemethodsareusedtostudymoduliofcurves. Likewise, we often prove results in special cases which we feel bring out the important ideas with a minimum of technical complication."
Synopsis
This book provides a guide to a rich and fascinating subject: algebraic curves and how they vary in families. The aim has been to provide a broad but compact overview of the field which will be accessible to readers with a modest background in algebraic geometry. With over 180 exercises and 70 figures.
Table of Contents
I Parameter spaces: constructions and examples II Basic facts about moduli spaces of curves III Techniques IV Construction of M_g V Limit Linear Series and the Brill-Noether Theory VI Geometry of moduli spaces: Selected Results