Introduction to Abelian Varieties

Abelian varieties are special examples of projective varieties. As such they can be described by a set of homogeneous polynomial equations. The theory of abelian varieties originated in the beginning of the ninetheenth centrury with the work of Abel and Jacobi.

The theory of automorphic forms is playing increasingly important roles in several branches of mathematics, even in physics, and is almost ubiquitous in number theory. This book introduces the reader to the subject and in particular to elliptic modular forms with emphasis on their number-theoretical aspects.