Vector Bundles in Algebraic Geometry

The study of vector bundles over algebraic varieties has been stimulated over the last few years by successive waves of migrant concepts, largely from mathematical physics, whilst retaining its roots in old questions concerning subvarieties of projective space. The 1993 Durham Symposium on Vector Bundles in Algebraic Geometry brought together some of the leading researchers in the field to explore further these interactions. This book is a collection of survey articles by the main speakers at the symposium and presents to the mathematical world an overview of the key areas of research involving vector bundles. Topics covered include those linking gauge theory and geometric invariant theory such as augmented bundles and coherent systems; Donaldson invariants of algebraic surfaces; Floer homology and quantum cohomology; conformal field theory and the moduli spaces of bundles on curves; the Horrocks-Mumford bundle and codimension 2 subvarieties in P4 and P5; exceptional bundles and stable sheaves on projective space.