Cubic hypersurfaces are described by almost the simplest possible polynomial equations, yet their behaviour is rich enough to demonstrate many of the central challenges in algebraic geometry. With exercises and detailed references to the wider literature, this thorough text introduces cubic hypersurfaces and all the techniques needed to study them. The book starts by laying the foundations for the study of cubic hypersurfaces and of many other algebraic varieties, covering cohomology and Hodge theory of hypersurfaces, moduli spaces of those and Fano varieties of linear subspaces contained in hypersurfaces. The next three chapters examine the general machinery applied to cubic hypersurfaces of dimension two, three, and four. Finally, the author looks at cubic hypersurfaces from a categorical point of view and describes motivic features. Based on the author's lecture courses, this is an ideal text for graduate students as well as an invaluable reference for researchers in algebraic geometry.

This book is an expanded version of lectures given at a summer school on symplectic geometry in Nordfjordeid, Norway, in June 2001. The unifying feature of the book is an emphasis on Calabi-Yau manifolds. The first part discusses holonomy groups and calibrated submanifolds, focusing on special Lagrangian submanifolds and the SYZ conjecture. The second studies Calabi-Yau manifolds and mirror symmetry, using algebraic geometry. The final part describes compact hyperkahler manifolds, which have a geometric structure very closely related to Calabi-Yau manifolds. The book is an introduction to a very active field of research, on the boundary between mathematics and physics. It is aimed at graduate students and researchers in geometry and string theory and intended as an introductory text, requiring only limited background knowledge. Proofs or sketches are given for many important results. Moreover, exercises are provided.

Easily accessible

Includes recent developments

Assumes very little knowledge of differentiable manifolds and functional analysis

Particular emphasis on topics related to mirror symmetry (SUSY, Kaehler-Einstein metrics, Tian-Todorov lemma)

K3 surfaces are central objects in modern algebraic geometry. This book examines this important class of Calabi-Yau manifolds from various perspectives in eighteen self-contained chapters. It starts with the basics and guides the reader to recent breakthroughs, such as the proof of the Tate conjecture for K3 surfaces and structural results on Chow groups. Powerful general techniques are introduced to study the many facets of K3 surfaces, including arithmetic, homological, and differential geometric aspects. In this context, the book covers Hodge structures, moduli spaces, periods, derived categories, birational techniques, Chow rings, and deformation theory. Famous open conjectures, for example the conjectures of Calabi, Weil, and Artin-Tate, are discussed in general and for K3 surfaces in particular, and each chapter ends with questions and open problems. Based on lectures at the advanced graduate level, this book is suitable for courses and as a reference for researchers.

Now back in print, this highly regarded book has been updated to reflect recent advances in the theory of semistable coherent sheaves and their moduli spaces, which include moduli spaces in positive characteristic, moduli spaces of principal bundles and of complexes, Hilbert schemes of points on surfaces, derived categories of coherent sheaves, and moduli spaces of sheaves on Calabi-Yau threefolds. The authors review changes in the field since the publication of the original edition in 1997 and point the reader towards further literature. References have been brought up to date and errors removed. Developed from the authors' lectures, this book is ideal as a text for graduate students as well as a valuable resource for any mathematician with a background in algebraic geometry who wants to learn more about Grothendieck's approach.

This seminal text on Fourier-Mukai Transforms in Algebraic Geometry by a leading researcher and expositor is based on a course given at the Institut de Mathematiques de Jussieu in 2004 and 2005. Aimed at postgraduate students with a basic knowledge of algebraic geometry, the key aspect of this book is the derived category of coherent sheaves on a smooth projective variety. Including notions from other areas, e.g. singular cohomology, Hodge theory, abelian varieties, K3 surfaces; full proofs are given and exercises aid the reader throughout.