Yu.I. Manin – författare

Since this book was first published in English, there has been important progress in a number of related topics. The class of algebraic varieties close to the rational ones has crystallized as a natural domain for the methods developed and expounded in this volume. For this revised edition, the original text has been left intact (except for a few corrections) and has been brought up to date by the addition of an Appendix and recent references.The Appendix sketches some of the most essential new results, constructions and ideas, including the solutions of the Luroth and Zariski problems, the theory of the descent and obstructions to the Hasse principle on rational varieties, and recent applications of K-theory to arithmetic.

1. This book is above all addressed to mathematicians. It is intended to be a textbook of mathematical logic on a sophisticated level, presenting the reader with several of the most significant discoveries of the last ten or fifteen years. These include: the independence of the continuum hypothe­ sis, the Diophantine nature of enumerable sets, the impossibility of finding an algorithmic solution for one or two old problems. All the necessary preliminary material, including predicate logic and the fundamentals of recursive function theory, is presented systematically and with complete proofs. We only assume that the reader is familiar with "naive" set theoretic arguments. In this book mathematical logic is presented both as a part of mathe­ matics and as the result of its self-perception. Thus, the substance of the book consists of difficult proofs of subtle theorems, and the spirit of the book consists of attempts to explain what these theorems say about the mathematical way of thought. Foundational problems are for the most part passed over in silence. Most likely, logic is capable of justifying mathematics to no greater extent than biology is capable of justifying life. 2. The first two chapters are devoted to predicate logic. The presenta­ tion here is fairly standard, except that semantics occupies a very domi­ nant position, truth is introduced before deducibility, and models of speech in formal languages precede the systematic study of syntax.

This volume of the Encyclopaedia presents a modern approachto homological algebra, which is based on the systematic useof the terminology and ideas of derived categories andderived functors. The book contains applications ofhomological algebra to the theory of sheaves on topologicalspaces, to Hodge theory, and to the theory of sheaves ontopological spaces, to Hodge theory, and to the theory ofmodules over rings of algebraic differential operators(algebraic D-modules). The authors Gelfand and Manin explainall the main ideas of the theory of derived categories. Bothauthors are well-known researchers and the second, Manin, isfamousfor his work in algebraic geometry and mathematicalphysics. The book isan excellent reference for graduate students andresearchers in mathematics and also for physicists who usemethods from algebraic geomtry and algebraictopology.

This book, the first printing of which was published as volume 38 of the Encyclopaedia of Mathematical Sciences, presents a modern approach to homological algebra, based on the systematic use of the terminology and ideas of derived categories and derived functors. The book contains applications of homological algebra to the theory of sheaves on topological spaces, to Hodge theory, and to the theory of modules over rings of algebraic differential operators (algebraic D-modules). The authors Gelfand and Manin explain all the main ideas of the theory of derived categories. Both authors are well-known researchers and the second, Manin, is famous for his work in algebraic geometry and mathematical physics. The book is an excellent reference for graduate students and researchers in mathematics and also for physicists who use methods from algebraic geometry and algebraic topology.