Lectures on algebraic geometry II: basic concepts, coherent cohomology, curves and their Jacobians

In this second volume of "Lectures on Algebraic Geometry", the author starts with some foundational concepts in the theory of schemes and gives a somewhat casual introduction into commutative algebra. After that he proves the finiteness results for coherent cohomology and discusses important applications of these finiteness results. In the two last chapters, curves and their Jacobians are treated and some outlook into further directions of research is given. The first volume is not necessarily a prerequisite for the second volume if the reader accepts the concepts on sheaf cohomology. On the other hand, the concepts and results in the second volume have been historically inspired by the theory of Riemann surfaces. There is a deep connection between these two volumes, in spirit they form a unity. Basic concepts of the Theory of Schemes - Some Commutative Algebra - Projective Schemes - Curves and the Theorem of Riemann-Roch - The Picard functor for curves and Jacobians. Prof. Dr. Günter Harder, Department of Mathematics, University of Bonn, and Max-Planck-Institute for Mathematics, Bonn, Germany