Topological Methods in Algebraic Geometry

In recent years new topological methods, especially the theory of sheaves founded by J. LERAY, have been applied successfully to algebraic geometry and to the theory of functions of several complex variables. H. CARTAN and J. -P. SERRE have shown how fundamental theorems on holomorphically complete manifolds (STEIN manifolds) can be for- mulated in terms of sheaf theory. These theorems imply many facts of function theory because the domains of holomorphy are holomorphically complete. They can also be applied to algebraic geometry because the complement of a hyperplane section of an algebraic manifold is holo- morphically complete. J. -P. SERRE has obtained important results on algebraic manifolds by these and other methods. Recently many of his results have been proved for algebraic varieties defined over a field of arbitrary characteristic. K. KODAIRA and D. C. SPENCER have also applied sheaf theory to algebraic geometry with great success. Their methods differ from those of SERRE in that they use techniques from differential geometry (harmonic integrals etc. ) but do not make any use of the theory of STEIN manifolds. M. F. ATIYAH and W. V. D. HODGE have dealt successfully with problems on integrals of the second kind on algebraic manifolds with the help of sheaf theory. I was able to work together with K. KODAIRA and D. C. SPENCER during a stay at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton from 1952 to 1954.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Chapter 1: Preparatory material 1. Multiplicative sequences 2. Sheaves 3. Fibre bundles 4. Characteristic classes Chapter 2: The cobordism ring 5. Pontrjagin numbers 6. The ring /ss(/Omega) /oplus //Varrho 7. The cobordism ring /omega 8. The index of a 4k-dimensional manifold 9. The virtual index Chapter 3: The Todd genus 10. Definiton of the Todd genus 11. The virutal generalised Todd genus 12. The t-characteristic of a GL(q, C)-bundle 13. Split manifolds and splitting methods 14. Multiplicative properties of the Todd genus Chapter 4: The Riemann-Roch theorem for algebraic manifolds 15. Cohomology of Compact complex manifolds 16. Further properties of the (/chi)x characteristics 17. The virtual (/chi)x characteristics 18. Some fundamental theorems of Kodaira 19. The virtual (/chi)x characteristics for algebraic manifolds 20. The Riemann-Roch theorem for algebraic manifolds and complex analytic line bundles 21. The Riemann-Roch theorem for algebraic manifolds and complex analytic vector bundles Appendix 1 by R.L.E. Schwarzenberger 22. Applications of the Riemann-Roch theorem 23. The Riemann-Roch theorem of Grothendieck 24. The Grothendieck ring of continuous vector bundles 25. The Atijah-Singer index theorem 26. Integrality theorems for differentiable manifolds Appendix 2 by A. Borel A spectral sequence for complex analytic bundles Bibliography Index