A small conference was held in September 1986 to discuss new applications of elliptic functions and modular forms in algebraic topology, which had led to the introduction of elliptic genera and elliptic cohomology. The resulting papers range, fom these topics through to quantum field theory, with considerable attention to formal groups, homology and cohomology theories, and circle actions on spin manifolds. Ed. Witten's rich article on the index of the Dirac operator in loop space presents a mathematical treatment of his interpretation of elliptic genera in terms of quantum field theory. A short introductory article gives an account of the growth of this area prior to the conference.

The contributions making up this volume are expanded versions of the courses given at the C.I.M.E. Summer School on the Theory of Moduli.

This research monograph sets out to study the notion of a local moduli suite of algebraic objects like e.g. schemes, singularities or Lie algebras and provides a framework for this. The basic idea is to work with the action of the kernel of the Kodaira-Spencer map, on the base space of a versal family. The main results are the existence, in a general context, of a local moduli suite in the category of algebraic spaces, and the proof that, generically, this moduli suite is the quotient of a canonical filtration of the base space of the versal family by the action of the Kodaira-Spencer kernel. Applied to the special case of quasihomogenous hypersurfaces, these ideas provide the framework for the proof of the existence of a coarse moduli scheme for plane curve singularities with fixed semigroup and minimal Tjurina number . An example shows that for arbitrary the corresponding moduli space is not, in general, a scheme. The book addresses mathematicians working on problems of moduli, in algebraic or in complex analytic geometry. It assumes a working knowledge of deformation theory.

This monograph provides an introduction to, as well as a unification and extension of the published work and some unpublished ideas of J. Lipman and E. Kunz about traces of differential forms and their relations to duality theory for projective morphisms. The approach uses Hochschild-homology, the definition of which is extended to the category of topological algebras. Many results for Hochschild-homology of commutative algebras also hold for Hochschild-homology of topological algebras. In particular, after introducing an appropriate notion of completion of differential algebras, one gets a natural transformation between differential forms and Hochschild-homology of topological algebras. Traces of differential forms are of interest to everyone working with duality theory and residue symbols. Hochschild-homology is a useful tool in many areas of k-theory. The treatment is fairly elementary and requires only little knowledge in commutative algebra and algebraic geometry.

The central topic of this research monograph is the relation between p-adic modular forms and p-adic Galois representations, and in particular the theory of deformations of Galois representations recently introduced by Mazur. The classical theory of modular forms is assumed known to the reader, but the p-adic theory is reviewed in detail, with ample intuitive and heuristic discussion, so that the book will serve as a convenient point of entry to research in that area. The results on the U operator and on Galois representations are new, and will be of interest even to the experts. A list of further problems in the field is included to guide the beginner in his research. The book will thus be of interest to number theorists who wish to learn about p-adic modular forms, leading them rapidly to interesting research, and also to the specialists in the subject.

This volume of research papers is an outgrowth of the Manin Seminar at Moscow University, devoted to K-theory, homological algebra and algebraic geometry. The main topics discussed include additive K-theory, cyclic cohomology, mixed Hodge structures, theory of Virasoro and Neveu-Schwarz algebras.

This volume of expository papers is the outgrowth of a conference in combinatorics and invariant theory. In recent years, newly developed techniques from algebraic geometry and combinatorics have been applied with great success to some of the outstanding problems of invariant theory, moving it back to the forefront of mathematical research once again. This collection of papers centers on constructive aspects of invariant theory and opens with an introduction to the subject by F. Grosshans. Its purpose is to make the current research more accesssible to mathematicians in related fields.

It is well known that there are close relations between classes of singularities and representation theory via the McKay correspondence and between representation theory and vector bundles on projective spaces via the Bernstein-Gelfand-Gelfand construction. These relations however cannot be considered to be either completely understood or fully exploited. These proceedings document recent developments in the area. The questions and methods of representation theory have applications to singularities and to vector bundles. Representation theory itself, which had primarily developed its methods for Artinian algebras, starts to investigate algebras of higher dimension partly because of these applications. Future research in representation theory may be spurred by the classification of singularities and the highly developed theory of moduli for vector bundles. The volume contains 3 survey articles on the 3 main topics mentioned, stressing their interrelationships, as well as original research papers.

Grids are special families of tripotents in Jordan triple systems. This research monograph presents a theory of grids including their classification and coordinization of their cover. Among the applications given are - classification of simple Jordan triple systems covered by a grid, reproving and extending most of the known classification theorems for Jordan algebras and Jordan pairs - a Jordan-theoretic interpretation of the geometry of the 27 lines on a cubic surface - structure theories for Hilbert-triples and JBW*-triples, the Jordan analogues of Hilbert-triples and W*-algebras which describe certain symmetric Banach manifolds. The notes are essentially self-contained and independent of the structure theory of Jordan algebras and Jordan pairs. They can be read by anyone with a basic knowledge in algebraic geometry or functional analysis. The book is intended to serve both as a reference for researchers in Jordan theory and as an introductory textbook for newcomers to the subject.

For a vector field #3, where Ai are series in X, the algebraic multiplicity measures the singularity at the origin. In this research monograph several strategies are given to make the algebraic multiplicity of a three-dimensional vector field decrease, by means of permissible blowing-ups of the ambient space, i.e. transformations of the type xi=x'ix1, 2"/I>i"/I>s, xi=x'i, i>s. A logarithmic point of view is taken, marking the exceptional divisor of each blowing-up and by considering only the vector fields which are tangent to this divisor, instead of the whole tangent sheaf. The first part of the book is devoted to the logarithmic background and to the permissible blowing-ups. The main part corresponds to the control of the algorithms for the desingularization strategies by means of numerical invariants inspired by Hironaka's characteristic polygon. Only basic knowledge of local algebra and algebraic geometry is assumed of the reader. The pathologies we find in the reduction of vector fields are analogous to pathologies in the problem of reduction of singularities in characteristic p. Hence the book is potentially interesting both in the context of resolution of singularities and in that of vector fields and dynamical systems.

These notes present very recent results on compact K hler-Einstein manifolds of positive scalar curvature. A central role is played here by a Lie algebra character of the complex Lie algebra consisting of all holomorphic vector fields, which can be intrinsically defined on any compact complex manifold and becomes an obstruction to the existence of a K hler-Einstein metric. Recent results concerning this character are collected here, dealing with its origin, generalizations, sufficiency for the existence of a K hler-Einstein metric and lifting to a group character. Other related topics such as extremal K hler metrics studied by Calabi and others and the existence results of Tian and Yau are also reviewed. As the rudiments of K hlerian geometry and Chern-Simons theory are presented in full detail, these notes are accessible to graduate students as well as to specialists of the subject.

Over the past 2O years classical Hodge theory has undergone several generalizations of great interest in algebraic geometry. The papers in this volume reflect the recent developments in the areas of: mixed Hodge theory on the cohomology of singular and open varieties, on the rational homotopy of algebraic varieties, on the cohomology of a link, and on the vanishing cycles; L -realization of the intersection cohomology for the cases of singular varieties and smooth varieties with degenerating coefficients; applications of cubical hyperresolutions and of iterated integrals; asymptotic behavior of degenerating variations of Hodge structure; the geometric realization of maximal variations; and variations of mixed Hodge structure. N

This book introduces the reader to modern algebraic geometry. It presents Grothendieck's technically demanding language of schemes that is the basis of the most important developments in the last fifty years within this area. A systematic treatment and motivation of the theory is emphasized, using concrete examples to illustrate its usefulness. Several examples from the realm of Hilbert modular surfaces and of determinantal varieties are used methodically to discuss the covered techniques. Thus the reader experiences that the further development of the theory yields an ever better understanding of these fascinating objects. The text is complemented by many exercises that serve to check the comprehension of the text, treat further examples, or give an outlook on further results. The volume at hand is an introduction to schemes. To get startet, it requires only basic knowledge in abstract algebra and topology. Essential facts from commutative algebra are assembled in an appendix. It will be complemented by a second volume on the cohomology of schemes.