Riemann Roch

From the Preface: K-theory was introduced by A. Grothendieck in his formulation of the Riemann- Roch theorem. For each projective algebraic variety, Grothendieck constructed a group from the category of coherent algebraic sheaves, and showed that it had many nice properties. Atiyah and Hirzebruch con­sidered a topological analog defined for any compact space X, a group K{X) constructed from the category of vector bundles on X. It is this ''topological K-theory" that this book will study.

The book presents the central facts of the local, projective and intrinsic theories of complex algebraic plane curves, with complete proofs and starting from low-level prerequisites. It includes Puiseux series, branches, intersection multiplicity, Bézout theorem, rational functions, Riemann-Roch theorem and rational maps. It is aimed at graduate and advanced undergraduate students, and also at anyone interested in algebraic curves or in an introduction to algebraic geometry via curves.

I. Algebraic Varieties in a Projective Space.- I. Fundamental Concepts.- § 1. Plane Algebraic Curves.- 1. Rational Curves.- 2. Connections with the Theory of Fields.- 3. Birational Isomorphism of Curves.- Exercises.- §2. Closed Subsets of Affine Spaces.- 1. Definition of Closed Subset.- 2. Regular Functions on a Closed Set.- 3. Regular Mappings.- Exercises.- § 3. Rational Functions.- 1. Irreducible Sets.- 2. Rational Functions.- 3. Rational Mappings.- Exercises.- § 4. Quasiprojective Varieties.- 1. Closed Subsets of a Projective Space.- 2. Regular Functions.- 3. Rational Functions.

This textbook on algebraic topology updates a popular textbook from the golden era of the Moscow school of I. M. Gelfand. The first English translation, done many decades ago, remains very much in demand, although it has been long out-of-print and is difficult to obtain. Therefore, this updated English edition will be much welcomed by the mathematical community. Distinctive features of this book include: a concise but fully rigorous presentation, supplemented by a plethora of illustrations of a high technical and artistic caliber; a huge number of nontrivial examples and computations done in detail; a deeper and broader treatment of topics in comparison to most beginning books on algebraic topology; an extensive, and very concrete, treatment of the machinery of spectral sequences. The second edition contains an entirely new chapter on K-theory and the Riemann-Roch theorem (after Hirzebruch and Grothendieck).