Valuation Theory, Riemann Varieties and the Structure of integral Preschemes

In this work we show that the classical subject of general valuation theory and Zariski-Riemann varieties has a much wider scope than commutative algebra and desingularization theory. We construct and investigate birational projective limit objects appropriate for the study of countably many birational models at one time. We use nonseparated Riemann varieties to investigate the birational structure of integral preschemes satisfying the existence condition of the valuative criterion of properness.