Moduli spaces of K3 surfaces and complex ball quotients

Abstract

These are lecture notes based on a series of talks given by the authors at the CIMPA Summer School on Algebraic Geometry and Hypergeometric Functions held in Istanbul in Summer of 2005. They provide an introduction to a recent work on the complex ball uniformization of the moduli spaces of Del Pezzo surfaces, K3 surfaces and algebraic curves of lower genus. We discuss the relationship of these constructions with the Deligne-Mostow theory of periods of hypergeometric differentianl forms. For convenience to a non-expert reader we include an introduction to the theory of periods of integrals on algebraic varieties with emphasis on abelian varieties and K3 surfaces.