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     

Okounkov bodies and Seshadri constants

Okounkov bodies, which are closed convex sets defined for big line bundles, have rich information on the line bundles. On the other hand, Seshadri constants are invariants which measure the positivity of line bundles. In this paper, we prove that Okounkov bodies give lower bounds of Seshadri constants.     

Mellin-Barnes integrals as Fourier-Mukai transforms

We study the generalized hypergeometric system introduced by Gelfand, Kapranov and Zelevinsky and its relationship with the toric Deligne-Mumford (DM) stacks recently studied by Borisov, Chen and Smith. We construct series solutions with values in a combinatorial version of the Chen-Ruan (orbifold) cohomology and in the K-theory of the associated DM stacks. In the spirit of the homological mirror symmetry conjecture of Kontsevich, we show that the K-theory action of the Fourier-Mukai functors associated to basic toric birational maps of DM stacks are mirrored by analytic continuation transformations of Mellin-Barnes type.     

Cohomology of toric bundles

Let p: E B be a principal bundle with fibre and structure group the torus T ( ^*)ⁿ over a topological space B. Let X be a nonsingular projective T-toric variety. One has the X-bundle : E(X) B where E(X) = E × _T X, ([e,x]) = p(e). This is a Zariski locally trivial fibre bundle in case p: E B is algebraic. The purpose of this note is to describe (i) the singular cohomology ring of E(X) as an H ^* (B;)-algebra, (ii) the topological K-ring of K ^* (E(X)) as a K ^* (B)-algebra when B is compact. When p : E B is algebraic over an irreducible, nonsingular, noetherian scheme over , we describe (iii) the Chow ring of A ^* (E(X)) as an A ^* (B)-algebra, and (iv) the Grothendieck ring $\mathcal K$⁰ (E (X)) of algebraic vector bundles on E (X) as a $\mathcal K$⁰(B)-algebra.     

On toric varieties which are almost set-theoretic complete intersections

We describe a class of affine toric varieties V that are set-theoretically minimally defined by binomial equations over fields of any characteristic.     

On varieties of almost minimal degree III: Tangent spaces and embedding scrolls

Let X⊂P^r be a variety of almost minimal degree which is the projected image of a rational normal scroll from a point p outside of . In this paper we study the tangent spaces at singular points of X and the geometry of the embedding scrolls of X, i.e. the rational normal scrolls Y⊂P^r which contain X as a codimension one subvariety.     

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     

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     

Géométrie toroïdale et géométrie analytique non archimédienne. Application au type d’homotopie de certains schémas formels

V.G. Berkovich’s non-Archimedean analytic geometry provides a natural framework to understand the combinatorial aspects in the theory of toric varieties and toroidal embeddings. This point of view leads to a conceptual and elementary proof of the following results: if X is an algebraic scheme over a perfect field and if D is the exceptional normal crossing divisor of a resolution of the singularities of X, the homotopy type of the incidence complex of D is an invariant of X. This is a generalization of a theorem due to D. Stepanov.     

On Characteristic Classes of Determinantal Cremona Transformations

We compute the multidegrees and the Segre numbers of general determinantal Cremona transformations, with generically reduced base scheme, by specializing to the standard Cremona transformation and computing its Segre class via mixed volumes of rational polytopes. Dedicated to the memory of Shiing-Shen Chern     

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.     

Cohen-Macaulayness and computation of Newton graded toric rings

Let H⊆Z^d be a positive semigroup generated by A⊆H, and let K[H] be the associated semigroup ring over a field K. We investigate heredity of the Cohen-Macaulay property from K[H] to both its A-Newton graded ring and to its face rings. We show by example that neither one inherits in general the Cohen-Macaulay property. On the positive side, we show that for every H there exist generating sets A for which the Newton graduation preserves Cohen-Macaulayness. This gives an elementary proof for an important vanishing result on A-hypergeometric Euler-Koszul homology. As a tool for our investigations we develop an algorithm to compute algorithmically the Newton filtration on a toric ring.     

Algebro-geometric characterization of Cayley polytopes

In this paper, we give an algebro-geometric characterization of Cayley polytopes. As a special case, we also characterize lattice polytopes with lattice width one by using Seshadri constants.