Log terminal singularities, platonic tuples and iteration of Cox rings (Q1746634)

Recall that the \textit{Cox ring} of a normal variety $X$ with finitely generated divisor class group $\mathrm{Cl}(X)$ and only constant globally invertible functions is \[ \mathcal{R}(X):= \bigoplus_{D \in \mathrm{Cl}(X)} \Gamma(X, \mathcal{O}_X(D)). \] If $X$ admits a torus action of complexity one, then there is an explicit description of the Cox ring $\mathcal{R}(X)$. It is well known that the two-dimensional log terminal singularities come with a nontrivial $\mathbb{C}^*$-action, and one can observe that there are chains of iterated Cox rings of those singularities. The aim of the paper under review is to extend the picture on iteration of Cox rings of two-dimensional log terminal singularities to higher dimensional log terminal singularities with a torus action of complexity one. First, Theorem 1.3 characterizes when a singularity with a torus action of complexity one is log terminal. More precisely, it is shown that an affine normal $\mathbb{Q}$-Gorenstein rational variety $X$ with torus action of complexity one of Type II has log terminal singularities if and only if $\mathcal{R}(X)$ is a platonic ring (see also Corollary 3.5 for Type I, the toric case). Next, Theorem 1.5 proves that there is a unique chain of quotients \[ X_p \xrightarrow{/\mkern-6mu/ H_{p-1}} X_{p-1} \xrightarrow{ /\mkern-6mu/ H_{p-2}} \cdots \xrightarrow{/\mkern-6mu/ H_2} X_2 \xrightarrow{/\mkern-6mu/ H_1} X_1=\text{Spec}(\mathcal{R}(X)) \] where $X_p$ is factorial, $X_i=\text{Spec} R_i$ with $R_i$ a platonic ring for $i \leq 2$, at each step $X_i$ is the total coordinate space for $X_{i-1}$, and $H_i=\text{Spec}(\mathbb{C}[Cl(X_i)])$. Theorem 1.6 further shows that $X=\text{Spec}{R'}/\mkern-6mu/ G$, where $R'$ is a factorial platonic ring and $G$ is a solvable reductive group, and $H_i=G^{(i-1)}/G^{(i)}$ and $X_i=X'/G^{(i-1)}$, where $G^{(i)}$ is the $i$-th derived subgroup of $G$. Finally, the authors investigate compound Du Val threefold singularities in details.