This book is based on courses given at Columbia University on vector bun dles (1988) and on the theory of algebraic surfaces (1992), as well as lectures in the Park City lIAS Mathematics Institute on 4-manifolds and Donald son invariants. The goal of these lectures was to acquaint researchers in 4-manifold topology with the classification of algebraic surfaces and with methods for describing moduli spaces of holomorphic bundles on algebraic surfaces with a view toward computing Donaldson invariants. Since that time, the focus of 4-manifold topology has shifted dramatically, at first be cause topological methods have largely superseded algebro-geometric meth ods in computing Donaldson invariants, and more importantly because of and Witten, which have greatly sim the new invariants defined by Seiberg plified the theory and led to proofs of the basic conjectures concerning the 4-manifold topology of algebraic surfaces. However, the study of algebraic surfaces and the moduli spaces ofbundles on them remains a fundamen tal problem in algebraic geometry, and I hope that this book will make this subject more accessible. Moreover, the recent applications of Seiberg Witten theory to symplectic 4-manifolds suggest that there is room for yet another treatment of the classification of algebraic surfaces. In particular, despite the number of excellent books concerning algebraic surfaces, I hope that the half of this book devoted to them will serve as an introduction to the subject.
This book covers the theory of algebraic surfaces and holomorphic vector bundles in an integrated manner. It is aimed at graduate students who have had a thorough first year course in algebraic geometry (at the level of Hartshorne's ALGEBRAIC GEOMETRY), as well as more advanced graduate students and researchers in the areas of algebraic geometry, gauge thoery, or 4-manifold topolgogy. Many of the results on vector bundles should also be of interest to physicists studying string theory. A novel feature of the book is its integrated approach to algebraic surface theory and the study of vector bundle theory on both curves and surfaces. While the two subjects remain separate through the first few chapters, and are studied in alternate chapters, they become much more tightly interconnected as the book progresses. Thus vector bundles over curves are studied to understand ruled surfaces, and then reappear in the proof of Bogomolov's inequality for stable bundles, which is itself applied to study canonical embeddings of surfaces via Reider's method. Similarly, ruled and elliptic surfaces are discussed in detail, and then the geometry of vector bundles over such surfaces is analyzed.
Many of the results on vector bundles appear for the first time in book form, suitable for graduate students. The book also has a strong emphasis on examples, both of surfaces and vector bundles. There are over 100 exercises which form an integral part of the text.
