Lectures on NX(p) deals with the question on how NX(p), the number of solutions of mod p congruences, varies with p when the family (X) of polynomial equations is fixed. While such a general question cannot have a complete answer, it offers a good occasion for reviewing various techniques in l-adic cohomology and group representations, presented in a context that is appealing to specialists in number theory and algebraic geometry. Along with covering open problems, the text examines the size and congruence properties of NX(p) and describes the ways in which it is computed, by closed formulae and/or using efficient computers. The first four chapters cover the preliminaries and contain almost no proofs. After an overview of the main theorems on NX(p), the book offers simple, illustrative examples and discusses the Chebotarev density theorem, which is essential in studying frobenian functions and frobenian sets. It also reviews -adic cohomology. The author goes on to present results on group representations that are often difficult to find in the literature, such as the technique of computing Haar measures in a compact -adic group by performing a similar computation in a real compact Lie group. These results are then used to discuss the possible relations between two different families of equations X and Y. The author also describes the Archimedean properties of NX(p), a topic on which much less is known than in the -adic case. Following a chapter on the Sato-Tate conjecture and its concrete aspects, the book concludes with an account of the prime number theorem and the Chebotarev density theorem in higher dimensions.

The impact and influence of Jean-Pierre Serre's work have been notable ever since his doctoral thesis on homotopy groups. The abundance of significant results and deep insight contained in his research and survey papers ranging through topology, several complex variables, and algebraic geometry to number theory, group theory, commutative algebra and modular forms, continues to provide inspiring reading for mathematicians working in these areas, in their research and their teaching. Characteristic of Serre's publications are the many open questions he formulated suggesting further research directions. Four volumes specify how he has provided comments on and corrections to most articles, and described the present status of the open questions with reference to later results. Jean-Pierre Serre is one of a few mathematicians to have won the Fields medal, the Abel prize, and the Wolf prize.

This book is based on a course given by the author at Harvard University in the fall semester of 1988. The course focused on the inverse problem of Galois Theory: the construction of field extensions having a given finite group as Galois group. In the first part of the book, classical methods and results, such as the Scholz and Reichardt construction for p-groups, p != 2, as well as Hilbert's irreducibility theorem and the large sieve inequality, are presented. The second half is devoted to rationality and rigidity criteria and their application in realizing certain groups as Galois groups of regular extensions of Q(T). While proofs are not carried out in full detail, the book contains a number of examples, exercises, and open problems.

 From the Preface: “There are three volumes. The first one contains a curriculum vitae, a «Brève Analyse des Travaux» and a Iist of publications, including books and seminars. In addition the volume contains all papers of H. Cartan on analytic functions published before 1939. The other papers on analytic functions, e.g. those on Stein manifolds and coherent sheaves, make up the second volume. The third volume contains, with a few exceptions, all further papers of H. Cartan; among them is a reproduction of exposés 2 to 11 of his 1954/55 Seminar on Eilenberg-MacLane algebras. Each volume is arranged in chronological order. The reader should be aware that these volumes do not fully reflect H. Cartan's work, a large part of which is also contained in his fifteen ENS-Seminars (1948-1964) and in his book "Homological Algebra" with S. Eilenberg... Still, we trust that mathematicians throughout the world will welcome the availability of the "Oeuvres" of a mathematician whose writing and teaching has had such an influence on our generation.�

From the Preface: "There are three volumes. The first one contains a curriculum vitae, a "Breve Analyse des Travaux" and a Iist of publications, including books and seminars. In addition the volume contains all papers of H. Cartan on analytic functions published before 1939. The other papers on analytic functions, e.g. those on Stein manifolds and coherent sheaves, make up the second volume. The third volume contains, with a few exceptions, all further papers of H. Cartan; among them is a reproduction of exposes 2 to 11 of his 1954/55 Seminar on Eilenberg-MacLane algebras. Each volume is arranged in chronological order. The reader should be aware that these volumes do not fully reflect H. Cartan's work, a large part of which is also contained in his fifteen ENS-Seminars (1948-1964) and in his book "Homological Algebra" with S. Eilenberg...Still, we trust that mathematicians throughout the world will welcome the availability of the "Oeuvres" of a mathematician whose writing and teaching has had such an influence on our generation."

From the Preface: "There are three volumes. The first one contains a curriculum vitae, a "Breve Analyse des Travaux" and a Iist of publications, including books and seminars. In addition the volume contains all papers of H. Cartan on analytic functions published before 1939. The other papers on analytic functions, e.g. those on Stein manifolds and coherent sheaves, make up the second volume. The third volume contains, with a few exceptions, all further papers of H. Cartan; among them is a reproduction of exposes 2 to 11 of his 1954/55 Seminar on Eilenberg-MacLane algebras. Each volume is arranged in chronological order. The reader should be aware that these volumes do not fully reflect H. Cartan's work, a large part of which is also contained in his fifteen ENS-Seminars (1948-1964) and in his book "Homological Algebra" with S. Eilenberg...Still, we trust that mathematicians throughout the world will welcome the availability of the "Oeuvres" of a mathematician whose writing and teaching has had such an influence on our generation."

The impact and influence of J.-P. Serres work have been notable ever since his doctoral thesis on homotopy groups. The abundance of findings and deep insights found in his research and survey papers ranging from topology, several complex variables, and algebraic geometry to number theory, group theory, commutative algebra and modular forms, continues to provide inspiring reading for mathematicians working in these areas, in their research and their teaching.

Characteristic of Serres publications are the many open questions he formulates pointing to further directions for research. In four volumes of Collected Papers he has provided comments on and corrections to most articles, and described the current status of the open questions with reference to later findings.

In this softcover edition of volume IV, two recently published articles have been added, one on the life and works of Andre Weil, the other one on Finite Subgroups of Lie Groups.

"From the reviews: "

"This is the fourth volume of J-P. Serre's "Collected Papers" covering the period 1985-1998. Items, numbered 133-173, contain "the essence'' of his work from that period and are devoted to number theory, algebraic geometry, and group theory. Half of them are articles and another half are summaries of his courses in those years and letters. Most courses have never been previously published, nor proofs of the announced results. The letters reproduced, however (in particular to K. Ribet and M.-F. Vigneras), provide indications of some of those proofs. Also included is an interview with J-P. Serre from 1986, revealing his views on mathematics (with the stress upon its integrity) and his own mathematical activity. The volume ends with Notes which complete the text by reporting recent progress and occasionally correct it.

"Zentralblatt MATH"

"

The impact and influence of Jean-Pierre Serre's work have been notable ever since his doctoral thesis on homotopy groups. The abundance of significant results and deep insight contained in his research and survey papers ranging through topology, several complex variables, and algebraic geometry to number theory, group theory, commutative algebra and modular forms, continues to provide inspiring reading for mathematicians working in these areas, in their research and their teaching. Characteristic of Serre's publications are the many open questions he formulated suggesting further research directions. Four volumes specify how he has provided comments on and corrections to most articles, and described the present status of the open questions with reference to later results. Jean-Pierre Serre is one of a few mathematicians to have won the Fields medal, the Abel prize, and the Wolf prize.

This is an updated English translation of Cohomologie Galoisienne, published more than thirty years ago as one of the very first versions of Lecture Notes in Mathematics. It includes a reproduction of an influential paper by R. Steinberg, together with some new material and an expanded bibliography.

These short notes, already well-known in their original French edition, present the basic theory of semisimple Lie algebras over the complex numbers. The author begins with a summary of the general properties of nilpotent, solvable, and semisimple Lie algebras. Subsequent chapters introduce Cartan subalgebras, root systems, and linear representations. The last chapter discusses the connection between Lie algebras, complex groups and compact groups. The book is intended to guide the reader towards further study.

From the reviews:

"Serre's notes on groups acting on trees have appeared in various forms (all in French) over the past ten years and they have had a profound influence on the development of many areas, for example, the theory of ends of discrete groups. This fine translation is very welcome and I strongly recommend it as an introduction to an important subject. In Chapter I, which is self-contained, the pace is fairly gentle. The author proves the fundamental theorem for the special cases of free groups and tree products before dealing with the (rather difficult) proof of the general case." (A.W. Mason in Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society 1982)

This is an English translation of the now classic "Algbre Locale - Multiplicits" originally published by Springer as LNM 11. It gives a short account of the main theorems of commutative algebra, with emphasis on modules, homological methods and intersection multiplicities. Many modifications to the original French text have been made for this English edition, making the text easier to read, without changing its intended informal character.

From the reviews: "Serre's notes on groups acting on trees have appeared in various forms (all in French) over the past ten years and they have had a profound influence on the development of many areas, for example, the theory of ends of discrete groups. This fine translation is very welcome and I strongly recommend it as an introduction to an important subject. In Chapter I, which is self-contained, the pace is fairly gentle. The author proves the fundamental theorem for the special cases of free groups and tree products before dealing with the (rather difficult) proof of the general case."(A.W. Mason in Proceedings of the Edinburgh Mathematical Society 1982)

This is an updated English translation of "Cohomologie Galoisienne", published more than 30 years ago as one of the very first Lecture Notes in Mathematics. It includes a reproduction of an influential paper of R. Steinberg, together with some new material and an expanded bibliography.

These notes, already well known in their original French edition, give the basic theory of semisimple Lie algebras over the complex numbers including the basic classification theorem. The author begins with a summary of the general properties of nilpotent, solvable, and semisimple Lie algebras. Subsequent chapters introduce Cartan subalgebras, root systems, and representation theory. The theory is illustrated by using the example of sln; in particular, the representation theory of sl2 is completely worked out. The last chapter discusses the connection between Lie algebras and Lie groups, and is intended to guide the reader towards further study.

This is an English translation of the now classic "Algèbre Locale - Multiplicités" originally published by Springer as LNM 11, in several editions since 1965. It gives a short account of the main theorems of commutative algebra, with emphasis on modules, homological methods and intersection multiplicities ("Tor-formula"). Many modifications to the original French text have been made by the author for this English edition: they make the text easier to read, without changing its intended informal character.

This book consists of three parts, rather different in level and purpose. The first part was originally written for quantum chemists. It describes the correspondence, due to Frobenius, between linear representations and characters. This is a fundamental result of constant use in mathematics as well as in quantum chemistry or physics. The examples in this part are chosen from those useful to chemists. The second part is a course given in 1966 to second-year students of l'Ecole Normale. It completes in a certain sense the first part. The third part is an introduction to Brauer Theory. Several Applications to the Artin representation are given.

This is a translation of "Auto ur du theoreme de Mordell-Weil," a course given by J . -P. Serre at the College de France in 1980 and 1981. These notes were originally written weekly by Michel Waldschmidt and have been reproduced by Publications Mathematiques de l'Universite de Paris VI, by photocopying the handwritten manuscript. The present translation follows roughly the French text, with many modi fications and rearrangements. We have not tried to give a detailed account of the new results due to Faltings, Raynaud, Gross-Zagier . . .; we have just mentioned them in notes at the appropriate places, and given bibliographical references. Paris, Fall 1988 M. L. Brown J. -P. Serre VII CONTENTS 1. Summary. 1 1. 1. Heights. 3 1. 2. The Mordell-Weil theorem and Mordell's conjecture. 3 1. 3. Integral points on algebraic curves. Siegel's theorem. 4 1. 4. Balcer's method. 5 1. 5. Hilbert's irreducibility theorem. Sieves. 5 2. Heights. 7 2. 1. The product formula. 7 2. 2. Heights on Pm(K). 10 2. 3. Properties of heights. 13 2. 4. Northcott's finiteness theorem. 16 2. 5. Quantitative form of Northcott's theorem. 17 2. 6. Height associated to a morphism rj; X -t P . 19 n 2. 7. The group Pic(X). 20 2. 8. Heights and line bundles. 22 2. 9. hc = 0(1) {: } c is of finite order (number fields). 24 2. 10. Positivity of the height. 24 2. 11. Divisors algebraically equivalent to zero."

These notes are a record of a course given in Algiers from lOth to 21st May, 1965. Their contents are as follows. The first two chapters are a summary, without proofs, of the general properties of nilpotent, solvable, and semisimple Lie algebras. These are well-known results, for which the reader can refer to, for example, Chapter I of Bourbaki or my Harvard notes. The theory of complex semisimple algebras occupies Chapters III and IV. The proofs of the main theorems are essentially complete; however, I have also found it useful to mention some complementary results without proof. These are indicated by an asterisk, and the proofs can be found in Bourbaki, Groupes et Algebres de Lie, Paris, Hermann, 1960-1975, Chapters IV-VIII. A final chapter shows, without proof, how to pass from Lie algebras to Lie groups (complex-and also compact). It is just an introduction, aimed at guiding the reader towards the topology of Lie groups and the theory of algebraic groups. I am happy to thank MM. Pierre Gigord and Daniel Lehmann, who wrote up a first draft of these notes, and also Mlle. Franr: oise Pecha who was responsible for the typing of the manuscript.

This book consists of three parts, rather different in level and purpose. The first part was originally written for quantum chemists. It describes the correspondence, due to Frobenius, between linear representations and characters. The second part is a course given in 1966 to second-year students of l'Ecole Normale. It completes in a certain sense the first part. The third part is an introduction to Brauer Theory.

The goal of this book is to present local class field theory from the cohomo logical point of view, following the method inaugurated by Hochschild and developed by Artin-Tate. This theory is about extensions-primarily abelian-of "local" (i.e., complete for a discrete valuation) fields with finite residue field. For example, such fields are obtained by completing an algebraic number field; that is one of the aspects of "localisation." The chapters are grouped in "parts." There are three preliminary parts: the first two on the general theory of local fields, the third on group coho mology. Local class field theory, strictly speaking, does not appear until the fourth part. Here is a more precise outline of the contents of these four parts: The first contains basic definitions and results on discrete valuation rings, Dedekind domains (which are their "globalisation") and the completion process. The prerequisite for this part is a knowledge of elementary notions of algebra and topology, which may be found for instance in Bourbaki. The second part is concerned with ramification phenomena (different, discriminant, ramification groups, Artin representation). Just as in the first part, no assumptions are made here about the residue fields. It is in this setting that the "norm" map is studied; I have expressed the results in terms of "additive polynomials" and of "multiplicative polynomials," since using the language of algebraic geometry would have led me too far astray."

"These volumes collect almost all of the research and expository papers of J.-P. Serre published in mathematical journals through 1984, as well as some of his seminar reports, and a few items not previously published. .... Throughout his writings, Serre has liberally sprinkled open questions and conjectures. Most endnotes list subsequent progress made on these questions or improvements to the main results of the papers. Some make additional comments, and a few are corrections. These endnotes alone justify the publication of the collected works. Serre is one of the masters of mathematical exposition...." --James Milne, University of Michigan, in Math Reviews

The main general theorems on Lie Algebras are covered, roughly the content of Bourbaki's Chapter I. I have added some results on free Lie algebras, which are useful, both for Lie's theory itself (Campbell-Hausdorff formula) and for applications to pro-Jrgroups. of time prevented me from including the more precise theory of Lack semisimple Lie algebras (roots, weights, etc.); but, at least, I have given, as a last Chapter, the typical case ofal, .. This part has been written with the help of F.Raggi and J.Tate. I want to thank them, and also Sue Golan, who did the typing for both parts. Jean-Pierre Serre Harvard, Fall 1964 Chapter I. Lie Algebras: Definition and Examples Let Ie be a commutativering with unit element, and let A be a k-module, then A is said to be a Ie-algebra if there is given a k-bilinear map A x A A (i.e., a k-homomorphism A0" A -] A). As usual we may define left, right and two-sided ideals and therefore quo tients. Definition 1. A Lie algebra over Ie isan algebrawith the following properties: 1). The map A0i A -+ A admits a factorization A (r)i A -+ A2A -+ A i.e., ifwe denote the imageof(x, y) under this map by x, y) then the condition becomes for all x e k. x, x)=0 2). (lx, II], z]+ny, z), x) + ( z, xl, til = 0 (Jacobi's identity) The condition 1) implies x,1/]=- 1/, x)."