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This volume contains the proceedings of a summer school presented by the Centro Internazionale Matematico Estivo, held at Montecatini Terme, Italy, in July 1988. This summer programme was devoted to methods of global differential geometry and algebraic geometry in field theory, with the main emphasis on istantons, vortices and other similar structures in gauge theories; Riemann surfaces and conformal field theories; geometry of supermanifolds and applications to physics. The papers are mainly surveys and tutorials. ... Read more

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The theory of schemes is the foundation for algebraic geometry proposed and elaborated by Alexander Grothendieck and his co-workers. It has allowed major progress in classical areas of algebraic geometry such as invariant theory and the moduli of curves. It integrates algebraic number theory with algebraic geometry, fulfilling the dreams of earlier generations of number theorists. This integration has led to proofs of some of the major conjectures in number theory (Deligne's proof of the Weil Conjectures, Faltings' proof of the Mordell Conjecture).

This book is intended to bridge the chasm between a first course in classical algebraic geometry and a technical treatise on schemes. It focuses on examples, and strives to show "what is going on" behind the definitions. There are many exercises to test and extend the reader's understanding. The prerequisites are modest: a little commutative algebra and an acquaintance with algebraic varieties, roughly at the level of a one-semester course. The book aims to show schemes in relation to other geometric ideas, such as the theory of manifolds. Some familiarity with these ideas is helpful, though not required. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Good book!
If you're interested in learning the basics of Algebraic Geometry and Hartshorne seems too daunting, try this book instead! The authors take their time developing the material and supplement it with exercises and examples, so the student gets an intuition and a feeling for Algebraic Geometry.
Definitely a good addition to a mathematician's library.

Supplement
This book is a strategic step in my campaign to be able to read EGA.Namely, I bought "The Geometry of Schemes" in order to get a better intuition for schemes (which, sadly, Hartshorne failed to provide).So far so good.There are pictures and the Eisenbud clarity I so like.I still don't get schemes, but since I haven't really read too much of the text that is to be expected.

good for a diffrent point of few.
I like the book in a way he explains the connection between alg. geom. and com. algebra. So, if you're quiet good in on of those both theories (this is ness. for this book), then it is a good book to learn more about the other side. To be good means you had at least one good course.
It's more or less a student book (4 year or further on) to get a better few to the connection of alg geom with com algebra.

Crystal clear overview of a traditionally abstract subject
The theory of schemes is usually thought to be highly abstract and esoteric, and one that makes the study of algebraic geometry even more difficult. The authors definitely dispel this notion in this book, which could have been called "A Concrete Introduction to Schemes", because of the clarity with which the concepts are introduced and explained. After studying this book, one will understand and appreciate the power of schemes in algebraic geometry. The authors do an even better jobthan they did in their earlier and short work "Schemes: The Language of Modern Algebraic Geometry", which is now out of print.

In chapter 1, the main definitions are given and the basic concepts behind schemes outlined. That schemes are more complicated than varieties is readily apparent even in this beginning chapter, where they are thought of as corresponding to the spectrum of a commutative ring with identity. Very elementary exercises are given to help the reader gain confidence in the constructions involved. They authors do have to discuss some sheaf theory, but they show its relevance nicely in this chapter. They also discuss the notion of a fibered product as a generalization of the idea of a preimage of a set under the application of a function and relate it to the construction of the functor of points. The role of the functor of points as reducing schemes to a kind of set theory is brought out beautifully here.

The next chapter gives many examples of schemes, with the first examples being reduced schemes over algebraically closed fields, these being essentially the ordinary varieties of classical algebraic geometry. The authors then give examples of schemes, the local schemes, which are more general than varieties. When departing from the assumption of a field that is not finitely generated, extra points will have to be added to classical varieties. The fact that only one closed point appears is compared to the case of complex manifolds, via the concept of a germ. This is a very helpful comparison, and one that further solidifies the understanding of a scheme in the mind of the reader. The authors give the reader a short peek at the etale topology in one of the examples. Examples are then given where the field is not algebraically closed, generalizing classical number theory, and non-reduced schemes, where nilpotents are present. The chapter ends with examples of arithmetic schemes where the spectra of rings are finitely generated over the integers.

Projective schemes are the subject of Chapter 3, and are defined in terms of graded algebras and invariants of projective schemes embedded in projective space are discussed. The Grasmannian scheme is discussed in detail as an example of a projective scheme. Interestingly, Bezout's theorem, very familiar from elementary algebraic geometry, is generalized here to projective schemes.

Constructions from classical algebraic geometry are generalized to schemes in Chapter 4. The first one discussed is the notion of a flex, which deals (classically) with the locus of tangent lines to a variety. The flexes are defined in terms of the Hessian of the variety, the latter being generalized by the authors to define a scheme of flexes. The notion of blowing up is also generalized to the scheme setting, with the authors motivating the discussion by blowing up the plane. The discussion of blow-ups along non-reduced subschemes of a scheme and blow-ups of arithmetic schemes is fascinating and the presentation is crystal clear. Fano varieties are also generalized to Fano schemes in the chapter. Most of the information about these schemes are contained in the exercises, and some of these need to be worked out for a thorough understanding.

The next chapter is more categorical in nature, and deals with generalizations of the classical Sylvester construction of resultants and discriminants to the scheme setting.

In the last chapter the authors return to the functor of points, and motivate the discussion by asking for a parametrization of families of schemes. The authors show, interestingly, that using the functor of points one can more easily compute geometric information about a scheme than using its equations. They illustrate this for the Zariski tangent space. Then after an overview of Hilbert schemes they close the book by introducing the reader to moduli spaces and a hint of algebraic stacks. No end in sight for this beautiful subject..........

A very good start
This book is clear, well written, and has a nice balance of generalities and examples. If you know the basics of rings and modules, this book will show you what schemes are and why they are useful for several different problems: for example, number theory, or studying singularities. I find it a helpful companion to Hartshorne's ALGEBRAIC GEOMETRY. But this book does not get to cohomology, and so cannot actually get to the working methods in the subject. For that, you need Hartshorne. ... Read more

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This text examines topological methods in algebraic geometry. ... Read more

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This volume discusses results about quadratic forms that give rise to interconnections among number theory, algebra, algebraic geometry, and topology. The author deals with various topics including Hilbert's 17th problem, the Tsen-Lang theory of quasi-algebraically closed fields, the level of topological spaces, and systems of quadratic forms over arbitrary fields. Whenever possible, proofs are short and elegant, and the author has made this book as self-contained as possible. This book brings together thirty years' worth of results certain to interest anyone whose research touches on quadratic forms. ... Read more

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This volume contains three long lecture series by J.L. Colliot-Thelene, Kazuya Kato and P. Vojta. Their topics are respectively the connection between algebraic K-theory and the torsion algebraic cycles on an algebraic variety, a new approach to Iwasawa theory for Hasse-Weil L-function, and the applications of arithemetic geometry to Diophantine approximation. They contain many new results at a very advanced level, but also surveys of the state of the art on the subject with complete, detailed profs and a lot of background. Hence they can be useful to readers with very different background and experience. CONTENTS: J.L. Colliot-Thelene: Cycles algebriques de torsion et K-theorie algebrique.- K. Kato: Lectures on the approach to Iwasawa theory for Hasse-Weil L-functions.- P. Vojta: Applications of arithmetic algebraic geometry to diophantine approximations. ... Read more

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This volume is an attempt to provide an overview of some of the recent advances in representation theory from a geometric standpoint. A geometrically-oriented treatment is very timely and has long been desired, especially since the discovery of D-modules in the early '80s and the quiver approach to quantum groups in the early '90s.

The first half of the book fills the gap between the standard knowledge of a beginner in Lie theory and the much wider background needed by the working mathematician. Thus, Chapters 1-3 and 5-6 provide some basics in symplectic geometry, group actions on Kahler manifolds and Borel--Moore homology, geometry of semisimple groups, equivariant algebraic K-theory "from scratch," topology and algebraic geometry of flag varieties and conjugacy classes, respectively.

The material covered by Chapters 5 and 6 (as well as most of Chapter 3) has never been presented in book form. Chapters 3-4 and 7-8 form the heart of the book, presenting a uniform approach to representation theory of three quite different objects: (1) Weyl groups; (2) Lie algebra sln; (3) Iwahori--Hecke algebra. The results of Chapters 4 and 8 are new, with complete proofs, not to be found elsewhere in the literature. The techniques developed are quite general and can be successfully applied to such other areas of mathematics, as Quantum groups, affine Lie algebras, and quantum field theory. The exposition is practically self-contained and each chapter potentially serving as a basis for a graduate course. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a nice blend of mathematics
it's not at all easy-going, but admittedly, it is probably the best way to learn some of the most stimulating and illuminating interactions between representation theory, symplectic geometry, algebraic geometry, and algebra;
a nice compliment to this book is 'symplectic fibrations and mutliplicity diagrams' by Guillemin et al.

other perspectives in ring theory from a geometricpoint of view (which could serve as yet another compliment) is Broho's 'nilpotent orbits, primitive ideals and characteristic classes'

no doubt, the advanced graduate student and professional mathematician would do well in, at least, taking a peek at the contents and theextensive introduction to whet his appetite and peak his curiousity! ... Read more

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This introduction to algebraic geometry allows readers to grasp the fundamentals of the subject with only linear algebra and calculus as prerequisites. After a brief history of the subject, the book introduces projective spaces and projective varieties, and explains plane curves and resolution of their singularities. The volume further develops the geometry of algebraic curves and treats congruence zeta functions of algebraic curves over a finite field. It concludes with a complex analytical discussion of algebraic curves. The author emphasizes computation of concrete examples rather than proofs, and these examples are discussed from various viewpoints. This approach allows readers to develop a deeper understanding of the theorems. ... Read more

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The effects of geometry and linear algebra on each other receive close attention in this examination of geometry’s correlation with other branches of math and science. In-depth discussions include a review of systematic geometric motivations in vector space theory and matrix theory; the use of the center of mass in geometry, with an introduction to barycentric coordinates; axiomatic development of determinants in a chapter dealing with area and volume; and a careful consideration of the particle problem. 1965 edition.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Geometric Overview of Core Math and Physics +++
This book presents a wonderful geometric overview of core math and physics. It is equally great for a preview or review of core math and physics. This work is done with attention to learning such core topics via a unifying and clarifying approach. Via this approach someone learns about a vector space approach to geometry via great cross-magnification of the illustrative sub-topics. I finally feel I clearly see the various sub-topics via the illumination of vector space geometry. But there is more -- physics methods, such as center-of-mass, are used directly [as primary mathematics] to magnify vector space geometry from the start. The notation is also clear and sharp as well as the mathematics presentation and the order of the chapters and topics. This is quite a unique timeless work +++

A bit longwinded
I didn't find this book to read like a novel.I got it hoping to learn about projective transformations for computer graphics, but was disappointed because of the method of presentation was too long to get through.I believe the text would appeal to those whose interest was strongly in geometry and had a college level background in math. I gave it three stars for the seemingly interminable proofs of geometric theorems that I had little use for.

Must have if on the road to Linear Algebra
This is one beautiful book. The whole book is one long thread about geometry and vectors. To make this review short, I'll say you absolutely *must* have this book if you want to set yourself on the proper track to Linear Algebra. In fact, this book could almost be considered an Analytic Geometry book 'done right.' But be careful: I said almost. By that I mean that some staple AG stuff is missing. For instance, no long discussions about a plane intersecting a sphere, no quadric surfaces. So it does lack the sort of drill exercises you need to succeed in an AG class - but such stuff is not its purported goal, anyway -but then again, your 'vector 6th sense' will increase tremendously with this book. I wish I had discovered this book while I was having my Analytic Geometry. Now I'm taking a Linear Algebra class and I'm glad I found this book.
It also is full of other interesting insights and relations to other topics, including some applications to Calculus (motion) and some topology.

A useful High School Geometry book for Computer Graphics
This is essentially a high school geometry book; but with a difference - its fully linear algebra based approach.If you are a beginner in computer graphics, and want to review elements of geometry and linear algebra, you will benefit from studying through this book.

The almost four hundred pages book is remarkably readable and is very consistent at that.There are both worked out examples and exercise problems, for each section - which are very useful for self-study or revision.

If you have never had an introduction to linear algebra before, you may have to supplement this with a linear algebra book.But if you have not had a good course in elementary geometry, and your motivation is getting started with elementary Computer Graphics/CAD and the likes, this is a good book for that.

Interspersed with the subject matter discussed at a elementary level, in a useful, stimulating style are small, interesting discussions on such useful and relatively advanced topics as function spaces, fixed point theorem in affine transformation, simplices, symmetries etc.I rarely have seen any of these topics mentioned in a book aimed at this level.

Highly recommended for freshman undergraduates and those without any mathematics experience who want to start in Graphics, CAD, CAGD and the likes.Recommended also for experienced practitioners in Graphics: it is good to review the fundamentals once in a while, and a well written bookthat is a quick read helps at that!

Perfect for first and second year, or physicists
The basics of the very deep connection between geometry and vector spaces. If you do undergrad math you will see everything in this book during first and second year. But what this book does is fit those bits together. He does this very nicely at an introductory level. If you are not in math, but need to learn some geometryfor a physics course, this will be a useful book.

It is a formal math book, with axioms, but it is strong on motivation and has some quite amusing examples.

Keywords: tangent spaces, determinants, barycentric, linear transformations. ... Read more

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Quantum groups and quantum algebras as well as non-commutative differential geometry are important in mathematics and considered to be useful tools for model building in statistical and quantum physics. This book, addressing scientists and postgraduates, contains a detailed and rather complete presentation of the algebraic framework. Introductory chapters deal with background material such as Lie and Hopf superalgebras, Lie super-bialgebras, or formal power series. Great care was taken to present a reliable collection of formulae and to unify the notation, making this volume a useful work of reference for mathematicians and mathematical physicists. ... Read more

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The volume consists of invited refereed research papers. The contributions cover a wide spectrum in algebraic geometry, from motives theory to numerical algebraic geometry and are mainly focused on higher dimensional varieties and Minimal Model Program and surfaces of general type.

A part of the articles grew out a Conference in memory of Paolo Francia (1951–2000) held in Genova in September 2001 with about 70 participants. ... Read more

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The systematic use of Koszul cohomology computations in algebraic geometry can be traced back to the foundational work of Mark Green in the 1980s. Green connected classical results concerning the ideal of a projective variety with vanishing theorems for Koszul cohomology. Green and Lazarsfeld also stated two conjectures that relate the Koszul cohomology of algebraic curves with the existence of special divisors on the curve. These conjectures became an important guideline for future research. In the intervening years, there has been a growing interaction between Koszul cohomology and algebraic geometry. Green and Voisin applied Koszul cohomology to a number of Hodge-theoretic problems, with remarkable success. More recently, Voisin achieved a breakthrough by proving Green's conjecture for general curves; soon afterwards, the Green-Lazarsfeld conjecture for general curves was proved as well. This book is primarily concerned with applications of Koszul cohomology to algebraic geometry, with an emphasis on syzygies of complex projective curves. The authors' main goal is to present Voisin's proof of the generic Green conjecture, and subsequent refinements. They discuss the geometric aspects of the theory and a number of concrete applications of Koszul cohomology to problems in algebraic geometry, including applications to Hodge theory and to the geometry of the moduli space of curves. ... Read more

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In this introduction to commutative algebra, the author choses a route that leads the reader through the essential ideas, without getting embroiled in technicalities. He takes the reader quickly to the fundamentals of complex projective geometry, requiring only a basic knowledge of linear and multilinear algebra and some elementary group theory. The author divides the book into three parts. In the first, he develops the general theory of noetherian rings and modules. He includes a certain amount of homological algebra, and he emphasizes rings and modules of fractions as preparation for working with sheaves. In the second part, he discusses polynomial rings in several variables with coefficients in the field of complex numbers. After Noether's normalization lemma and Hilbert's Nullstellensatz, the author introduces affine complex schemes and their morphisms; he then proves Zariski's main theorem and Chevalley's semi-continuity theorem. Finally, the author's detailed study of Weil and Cartier divisors provides a solid background for modern intersection theory. This is an excellent textbook for those who seek an efficient and rapid introduction to the geometric applications of commutative algebra. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

brief, but good
Peskine doesn't give a lot of explanations (he manages to cover on 30 pages what usually takes up half a book) and the exercises are tough, but the book is nevertheless well written, which makes it pretty easy to read and understand. Recommended for everyone willing to work their way through his one-line proofs ("Obvious.")! ... Read more

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This new, completely revised edition of a classic text introduces all elements necessary for understanding The Proof (Title of a PBS series dedicated to the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem) as well as new development and unsolved problems. Written by two distinguished mathematicians, Ian Stewart and David Tall, this book weaves together the historical development of the subject with a presentation of mathematical techniques. The result is a solid introduction to one of the most active research areas of mathematics for serious math buffs and a textbook accessible to undergraduates. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Not bad, but much to be improved.
I entirely agree with the review by Mr T. Luo.In the parts I and II, there exist many logical gaps in the exposition that require a substantial amount of effort to fill in.If this book is used as a textbook in a class, that may prove pedagogically benefiting.But self-studying newcomers to the subject will find the textbook hard to follow.I must add that there are many typos concerning fraktur, especially in chapter 5, which makes the reading frustrating.

Great Introductory Book to Algebraic Number Theory
I wasn't lucky enough to have the opportunity to have a class in algebraic number theory in college or graduate school, so I had to learn it on my own. This book was recommended to me by my friend Paul Pollack (author of Not Always Buried Deep) and the suggestion was fantastic, as I was able to learn algebraic number theory.

The book is written very clearly, it has nice exercises that make the theorems clearer and it covers the basic concepts from algebraic number theory.

This a great book to learn the basics of the subject.

skips too much
I guess the previous reviewers didn't try any of the exercises in the book. They are very good problems but the text is far from sufficient for us to solve the problems. For example, there is only one example in chapter 2 on how to find integral basis and it is a quadratic field. However, the 4th problem of this chapter is to find the discriminant of a degree-4 extension! At least the author should supply more theorems on integral basis so that we know how to start such a problem.
I feel like the author is very "Rudin" in his writing, neglecting all the details. Sometimes it's fun to fill in the details myself, but sometimes it can be rather annoying. I think a undergraduate textbook shouldn't skip too many steps in the proofs.

tough problems => good for the student
The motivation of explaining Fermat's Last Theorem is a nice device by which Stewart takes you on a tour of algebraic number theory. Things like rings of integers, Abelian groups, Minkowski's Theorem and Kummer's Theorem arise fluidly and naturally out of the presentation.

The inclusion of problem sets in each chapter also enlivens its appeal to a student. Typically, the first problems in each set are easy. But later problems can be quite formidable, and really give a good mental workout of the salient issues just covered in the chapter.

Very clear introduction to Algebraic Number Theory
This book is a very clear intoductino to ANT.It is a good first step for many reasons.One: it stays with algebraic number fields that are extensions of Q, the rational numbers.You get a good feel for the subject.When you go to more advanced books Q is replaced by other fields (P-adic, function fields, finite fields,..).
Two: He assumes very little and writes very clearly
Three: You only needs to read his Galois theory book for the prerequisite
Four: His book is what is usually left for the reader to do as an excersize in more advanced books. ... Read more

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The first contribution of this EMS volume on complex algebraic geometry touches upon many of the central problems in this vast & very active area of current research, providing a succinct summary of the areas it covers, while providing in-depth coverage of certain very important fields. ... Read more

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This book will be particularly valuable to the American student because it covers material that is not available in any other textbooks or monographs. The subject of the book is not restricted to commutative algebra developed as a pure discipline for its own sake, nor is it aimed only at algebraic geometry where the intrinsic geometry of a general n-dimensional variety plays the central role. Instead, this book is developed around the vital theme that certain areas of both subjects are best understood together. This link between the two subjects, forged in the nineteenth century, built further by Krull and Zariski, remains as active as ever. In this book, the reader will find as the same time a leisurely and clear exposition of the basic definitions and results in both algebra and geometry, as well as an cxposition of the important recent progress fue to Quillen-Suslin, Evans-Eisenbud, Szpiro, Mohan Kumar and others. The ample exercises are another excellent feature. Professor Kunz has filled a longstanding need for an introduction to commutative algebra and algebraic geometry that emphasizes the concrete elementary nature of objects with which both subjects began. ... Read more

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These notes present a polished introduction to tropical geometry and contain some applications of this rapidly developing and attractive subject. It consists of three chapters which complete each other and give a possibility for non-specialists to make the first steps in the subject which is not yet well represented in the literature. The notes are based on a seminar at the Mathematical Research Center in Oberwolfach in October 2004. The intended audience is graduate, post-graduate, and Ph.D. students as well as established researchers in mathematics.

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This text provides an introduction to the theory of convex polytopes and polyhedral sets, to algebraic geometry and to the fascinating connections between these fields: the theory of toric varieties (or torus embeddings). The fist part of the book contains an introduction to the theory of polytopes - one of the most important parts of classical geometry in n-dimensional Euclidean space. Since the discussion here is independent of any applications to algebraic geometry, it would also be suitable for a course in geometry. This part also provides large parts of the mathematical background of linear optimization and of the geometrical aspects in Computer Science. The second part introduces toric varieties in an elementary way, building on the concepts of combinatorial geometry introduced in the first part. Many of the general concepts of algebraic geometry arise in this treatment and can be dealt with concretely. This part of the book can thus serve for a one-semester introduction to algebraic geometry, with the first part serving as a reference for combinatorial geometry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent way to begin a study of algebraic geometry
This book is a very organized introduction to the study of constructions that really go back to Isaac Newton, one of these now being called a Newton polygon. In the context of modern algebraic geometry, the constructions take place when dealing with the resolution of singularities of varieties. Given a variety X, this procedure asks for a map from a nonsingular variety Y to X, such that the map is an isomorphism over the nonsingular locus of X. It was the case of a plane curve singularity that was essentially solved by Newton. His techniques were generalized considerably beginning in the 1970's, and resulted in the theory of toric varieties, which is the main subject of this book.

Loosely speaking, a toric variety is a complex algebraic variety which is the partial compactification of an algebraic torus. The algebraic torus acts on a point in the toric variety such that the orbit of the point is an embedded copy of the algebraic torus. Toric varieties are excellent concrete examples of algebraic varieties since they are characterized entirely by a combinatorial object called its fan, which is a collection of convex cones.

This book is an fine introduction to toric varieties. The author does a thorough job of detailing the relevant background in the first half of the book, which deals mostly with convexity and the geometry of lattice polytopes. A very interesting discussion of the Picard group is given in the last few sections of this part. This is one of the best discussions I have seen in the literature on this subject as it gives the reader a very intuitive and concrete view of this group.

The second half covers toric varieties in detail with systems of rational functions on a toric variety studied via sheaf theory. The reader familiar with sheaf theory from general algebraic geometry will see it take on a beautifully concrete form in this book. Readers new to algebraic geometry will appreciate the more abstract approach to sheaf theory if they move on to these more advanced treatments. The author gives many examples of the constructions involved with toric varieties. The cohomology of toric varieties is also treated very nicely, and here again, a reader with a modest background in combinatorial topology will follow the presentation. The physicist reader doing research into mirror symmetry will appreciate this book, as toric varieties serve as a good starting point for the constructions in that area. ... Read more