Toric degenerations of spherical varieties

We prove that any affine, resp. polarized projective, spherical variety admits a flat degeneration to an affine, resp. polarized projective, toric variety. Motivated by mirror symmetry, we give conditions for the limit toric variety to be a Gorenstein Fano, and provide many examples. We also provide an explanation for the limits as boundary points of the moduli space of stable pairs whose existence is predicted by the Minimal Model Program.     

Stable base loci, movable curves, and small modifications, for toric varieties

We show that the dual of the cone of divisors on a complete -factorial toric variety X whose stable base loci have dimension less than k is generated by curves on small modifications of X that move in families sweeping out the birational transforms of k-dimensional subvarieties of X. We give an example showing that it does not suffice to consider curves on X itself. Supported by a Graduate Research Fellowship from the NSF     

On a notion of toric special linear systems

In this note, we study linear systems on complete toric varieties X with an invariant point whose orbit under the action of $\mathrm{Aut}(X)$ contains the dense torus T of X. We give a characterization of such varieties in terms of its defining fan and introduce a new definition of expected dimension of linear systems which consider the contribution given by certain toric subvarieties. Finally, we study degenerations of linear systems on these toric varieties induced by toric degenerations.     

Classifying smooth lattice polytopes via toric fibrations

We show that any smooth Q-normal lattice polytope P of dimension n and degree d is a strict Cayley polytope if n?2d+1. This gives a sharp answer, for this class of polytopes, to a question raised by V.V. Batyrev and B. Nill.     

A geometric degree formula for A-discriminants and Euler obstructions of toric varieties

We give explicit formulas for the dimensions and the degrees of A-discriminant varieties introduced by Gelfand, Kapranov and Zelevinsky. Our formulas can be applied also to the case where the A-discriminant varieties are higher-codimensional and their degrees are described by the geometry of the configurations A. Moreover combinatorial formulas for the Euler obstructions of general (not necessarily normal) toric varieties will be also given.     

Secant varieties of toric varieties

Let X_P be a smooth projective toric variety of dimension n embedded in P^r using all of the lattice points of the polytope P. We compute the dimension and degree of the secant variety . We also give explicit formulas in dimensions 2 and 3 and obtain partial results for the projective varieties X_A embedded using a set of lattice points A⊂P∩Zⁿ containing the vertices of P and their nearest neighbors.     

On toric h-vectors of centrally symmetric polytopes

We prove tight lower bounds for the coefficients of the toric h-vector of an arbitrary centrally symmetric polytope generalizing previous results due to R. Stanley and the author using toric varieties. Our proof here is based on the theory of combinatorial intersection cohomology for normal fans of polytopes developed by G. Barthel, J.-P. Brasselet, K. Fieseler and L. Kaup, and independently by P. Bressler and V. Lunts. This theory is also valid for nonrational polytopes when there is no standard correspondence with toric varieties. In this way we can establish our bounds for centrally symmetric polytopes even without requiring them to be rational. Received: 24 March 2004     

Generation of k-jets on toric varieties

The notion of a k-convex -support function for a toric variety is introduced. A criterion for a line bundle L to generate k-jets on X is given in terms of the k-convexity of the -support function . Equivalently L is proved to be k-jet ample if and only if the restriction to each invariant curve has degree at least k. Received October 22, 1997; in final form January 12, 1998     

On Euler–Jaczewski sequence and Remmert–Van de Ven problem for toric varieties

Let X be a complete toric variety and Y a smooth projective variety with . We prove that, if is a surjective morphism then . Received: 15 May 2001; in final form: 22 October 2001/ Published online: 4 April 2002     

One-parameter toric deformations of cyclic quotient singularities

In the case of two-dimensional cyclic quotient singularities, we classify all one-parameter toric deformations in terms of certain Minkowski decompositions introduced by Altmann [Minkowski sums and homogeneous deformations of toric varieties, Tohoku Math. J. (2) 47 (2) (1995) 151-184.]. In particular, we show how to induce each deformation from a versal family, describe exactly to which reduced versal base space components each such deformation maps, describe the singularities in the general fibers, and construct the corresponding partial simultaneous resolutions.     

Global residues for sparse polynomial systems

We consider families of sparse Laurent polynomials f₁,…,f_n with a finite set of common zeros Z_f in the torus Tⁿ=(C−{0})ⁿ. The global residue assigns to every Laurent polynomial g the sum of its Grothendieck residues over Z_f. We present a new symbolic algorithm for computing the global residue as a rational function of the coefficients of the f_i when the Newton polytopes of the f_i are full-dimensional. Our results have consequences in sparse polynomial interpolation and lattice point enumeration in Minkowski sums of polytopes.     

Minimal generators of toric ideals of graphs

Let IG be the toric ideal of a graph G. We characterize in graph theoretical terms the primitive, the minimal, the indispensable and the fundamental binomials of the toric ideal IG.     

Abelian surfaces in projective toric 4-folds

We show fundamental properties on embedding of abelian surfaces into projective toric 4-folds, and study the case of the toric Del Pezzo 4-fold from the viewpoint of the moduli space of abelian surfaces with polarization of type (1, 5). Received: 31 January 2005; revised: 15 April 2005     

Differential operators on toric varieties and Fourier transform

We show that Fourier transforms on the Weyl algebras have a geometric counterpart in the framework of toric varieties, namely they induce isomorphisms between twisted rings of differential operators on regular toric varieties, whose fans are related to each other by reflections of one-dimensional cones. The simplest class of examples is provided by the toric varieties related by such reflections to projective spaces. It includes the blow-up at a point of the affine space and resolution of singularities of varieties appearing in the study of the minimal orbit of .     

On the geometry of complete intersection toric varieties

In this paper we give a geometric characterization of the cones of toric varieties that are complete intersections. In particular, we prove that the class of complete intersection cones is the smallest class of cones which is closed under direct sum and contains all simplex cones. Further, we show that the number of the extreme rays of such a cone, which is less than or equal to 2n − 2, is exactly 2n − 2 if and only if the cone is a bipyramidal cone, where n > 1 is the dimension of the cone. Finally, we characterize all toric varieties whose associated cones are complete intersection cones. Received: 4 July 2005     

Some results about the projective normality of abelian varieties

We reduce the problem of the projective normality of polarized abelian varieties to check the rank of very explicit matrices. This allows us to prove some results on normal generation of primitive line bundles on abelian threefolds and fourfolds. We also give two situations where the projective normality always fails. Finally we make some conjecture. Received: 1 September 2004; revised: 10 March 2005