The aim of this book is to provide an introduction to the structure
theory of higher dimensional algebraic varieties by studying the
geometry of curves, especially rational curves, on varieties. The main
applications are in the study of Fano varieties and of related varieties
with lots of rational curves on them. This Ergebnisse volume provides
the first systematic introduction to this field of study. The book
contains a large number of examples and exercises which serve to
illustrate the range of the methods and also lead to many open questions
of current research.