A survey on Cox rings (Q1018073)

The paper under review is a survey on the topic on Cox rings, mainly focused on the birational aspects of this theory. The Cox ring of an algebraic variety \(X\) is a natural candidate for a unique choice of \textit{the total coordinate ring} of a variety. Although it can be defined in more generality let us fix the following setup: an algebraic variety \(X\) (over an algebraically closed field \(K\)) such that Pic\((X)\) is free of rank \(r\) and coincides with Cl\((X)\). Choose \(L_1, \dots ,L_r\) a collection of line bundles whose classes form a basis for Pic\((X)\), the Cox ring of \(X\) associated to this choice of a base is defined as follows: \[ \bigoplus_{(m_1,\dots,m_r) \in Z^r}H^0(X,m_1L_1+\dots+m_rL_r) \] with the multiplication induced by the product of rational functions. A study of some basic examples of varieties whose Cox rings are finitely generated is presented describing how the Cox ring can be used to study the birational geometry of \(X\). In fact, when Cox\((X)\) is finitely generated the Mori program can be carried out for any divisor on \(X\). The required flips and contractions exist and every sequence terminates. They are called for this reason \textit{Mori Dream Spaces}. Toric varieties seem to play a central role in the theory. Their Cox rings are multigraded polynomial rings and whenever \(X\) has a finitely generated Cox ring, it embeds naturally into some toric variety \(Y\) in such a way that the birational geometry of \(X\) and that of \(Y\) are tightly related. The structure of the survey is written in its Introduction: ``In Sect. 2 we review the construction of the Cox ring of a toric variety \(X\) and show that \(X\) is a categorical quotient of an affine space by a torus. We generalize these concepts in Sect. 3 where we introduce the Mori chambers of \(X\). We define Mori Dream spaces in Sect. 4, while in Sect. 5 we describe some examples of such varieties. Finally, in Sect. 6 we survey a geometric method for finding the ideal of relations of a Cox ring once its generators are known.''