Analytic Cycles of Finite Type

This book highlights the use of non-compact analytic cycles in complex geometry. The main focus is on analytic families of cycles of finite type, in other words, cycles which have only finitely many irreducible components. It is shown how the space of all cycles of finite type in a given complex space, endowed with a weak analytic structure, can be used in many ways as the reduced complex space of all compact cycles in the given space. Several illustrative and enlightening examples are provided, as well as applications, giving life to the theory. The exposition includes a characterization of quasi-proper holomorphic maps which admit a geometric flattening, a proof of an existence theorem for meromorphic quotients with respect to a large class of analytic equivalence relations, and a generalization of the Stein factorization to a variety of holomorphic maps. In addition, a study is made of the behavior of analytic families of finite type cycles when they are restricted to Zariski open subsets and extended across analytic subsets. Aimed at researchers and graduate students with an interest in complex or algebraic geometry, the book is adequately self-contained, the basic notions are explained and suitable references are given for auxiliary results that are used in the text.