Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2008
Since Riemann's dissertation of 1851, Riemann surfaces have for the most part been considered as suitable domains of definition for analytic functions. Here, however, we view them as topological spaces associated with certain kinds of field extension, and consider how their topological properties are connected with algebraic properties of these field extensions. A specialization of these results gives us arithmetic properties of fields of algebraic functions of one real variable.