Algebraic vs. analytic: a survey

Abstract

Given a pair of complex algebraic varieties, we can ask: does every analytic map admit an algebraic representative? Such questions are most interesting when the source and target are non-compact varieties, in which case the problems are closely linked with Hodge-type conjectures. Concrete avatars of this kind of problem, which we discuss from several points of view, include: which holomorphic vector bundles on an affine variety admit an algebraic structure, and which homotopy classes of maps admit algebraic representatives?

42 pages; to appear Proceedings of the Summer Algebraic Geometry Research Institute