Fascinating and surprising developments are taking place in the classification of algebraic varieties. The work of Hacon and McKernan and many others is causing a wave of breakthroughs in the minimal model program: we now know that for a smooth projective variety the canonical ring is finitely generated. These new results and methods are reshaping the field. Inspired by this exciting progress, the editors organized a meeting at Schiermonnikoog and invited leading experts to write papers about the recent developments. The result is the present volume, a lively testimony to the sudden advances that originate from these new ideas. This volume will be of interest to a wide range of pure mathematicians, but will appeal especially to algebraic and analytic geometers.

This edition has been updated to reflect recent advances in the theory of semistable coherent sheaves and their moduli spaces. The authors review changes in the field and point the reader towards further literature. An ideal text for graduate students or mathematicians with a background in algebraic geometry.

This reference presents the proceedings of an international meeting on the occasion of theUniversity of Bologna's ninth centennial-highlighting the latest developments in the field ofgeometry and complex variables and new results in the areas of algebraic geometry,differential geometry, and analytic functions of one or several complex variables.Building upon the rich tradition of the University of Bologna's great mathematics teachers, thisvolume contains new studies on the history of mathematics, including the algebraic geometrywork of F. Enriques, B. Levi, and B. Segre ... complex function theory ideas of L. Fantappie,B. Levi, S. Pincherle, and G. Vitali ... series theory and logarithm theory contributions of P.Mengoli and S. Pincherle ... and much more. Additionally, the book lists all the University ofBologna's mathematics professors-from 1860 to 1940-with precise indications of eachcourse year by year.Including survey papers on combinatorics, complex analysis, and complex algebraic geometryinspired by Bologna's mathematicians and current advances, Geometry and ComplexVariables illustrates the classic works and ideas in the field and their influence on today'sresearch.

Singular algebraic curves have been in the focus of study in algebraic geometry from the very beginning, and till now remain a subject of an active research related to many modern developments in algebraic geometry, symplectic geometry, and tropical geometry. The monograph suggests a unified approach to the geometry of singular algebraic curves on algebraic surfaces and their families, which applies to arbitrary singularities, allows one to treat all main questions concerning the geometry of equisingular families of curves, and, finally, leads to results which can be viewed as the best possible in a reasonable sense. Various methods of the cohomology vanishing theory as well as the patchworking construction with its modifications will be of a special interest for experts in algebraic geometry and singularity theory. The introductory chapters on zero-dimensional schemes and global deformation theory can well serve as a material for special courses and seminars for graduate and post-graduate students.Geometry in general plays a leading role in modern mathematics, and algebraic geometry is the most advanced area of research in geometry. In turn, algebraic curves for more than one century have been the central subject of algebraic geometry both in fundamental theoretic questions and in applications to other fields of mathematics and mathematical physics. Particularly, the local and global study of singular algebraic curves involves a variety of methods and deep ideas from geometry, analysis, algebra, combinatorics and suggests a number of hard classical and newly appeared problems which inspire further development in this research area.