The basic problem of deformation theory in algebraic geometry involves watching a small deformation of one member of a family of objects, such as varieties, or subschemes in a fixed space, or vector bundles on a fixed scheme. In this new book, Robin Hartshorne studies first what happens over small infinitesimal deformations, and then gradually builds up to more global situations, using methods pioneered by Kodaira and Spencer in the complex analytic case, and adapted and expanded in algebraic geometry by Grothendieck. The author includes numerous exercises, as well as important examples illustrating various aspects of the theory. This text is based on a graduate course taught by the author at the University of California, Berkeley.

Product Description: This book provides a negative solution to Zeuthen's problem, which was proposed as a prize problem in 1901 by the Royal Danish Academy of Arts and Sciences. The problem was to decide whether every irreducible family of smooth space curves admits limit curves which are stick figures, composed of lines meeting only two at a time...read more