18.727 | Spring 2008 | Graduate

Topics in Algebraic Geometry: Algebraic Surfaces

Course Description

The main aims of this seminar will be to go over the classification of surfaces (Enriques-Castelnuovo for characteristic zero, Bombieri-Mumford for characteristic p), while working out plenty of examples, and treating their geometry and arithmetic as far as possible.
Learning Resource Types
Problem Sets
Lecture Notes
cubic surface with rational double points
An example of a cubic surface with singularities. Eight lines on the cubic surface are shown. On a nonsingular cubic surface, there are always 27 lines. (Image courtesy of Dr. Oliver Labs and Prof. Duco van Straten.)