Local properties and Hilbert schemes of points

Alexander Grothendieck's concepts turned out to be astoundingly powerful and productive, truly revolutionizing algebraic geometry. He sketched his new theories in talks given at the Seminaire Bourbaki, between 1957 and 1962. He, then, collected these lectures in a series of articles in "Fondements de la geometrie algebrique" (commonly known as "FGA"). Much of "FGA" is now common knowledge. However, some of it is less well-known, and only a few geometers are familiar with its full scope. The goal of the current book, which resulted from the 2003 Advanced School in Basic Algebraic Geometry (Trieste, Italy), is to fill in the gaps in Grothendieck's very condensed outline of his theories. The four main themes discussed in the book are descent theory, Hilbert and Quot schemes, the formal existence theorem, and the Picard scheme. The authors present complete proofs of the main results, using newer ideas to promote understanding whenever necessary, and drawing connections to later developments. With the main prerequisite being a thorough acquaintance with basic scheme theory, this book is a valuable resource for anyone working in algebraic geometry.