An algorithmic desingularization of 3-dimensional toric varieties (Q1345471)

We present a method to desingularize every three-dimensional toric variety \(X = X_ \Delta\), where \(\Delta\) is a simplicial fan. Letting \(\Delta^{(3)}\) denote the set of three-dimensional cones of \(\Delta\), each cone \(\sigma \in \Delta^{(3)}\) of multiplicity \(\text{mult} (\sigma) > 1\) is starred at a nonzero primitive vector \(p_ \sigma \in \sigma \cap \mathbb{Z}^ 3\) such that the sum of the multiplicities of the cones thus obtained is the smallest possible. In this way, after a finite number of steps one obtains a fan \(\nabla (\Delta)\) yielding a nonsingular subdivision of \(\Delta\). Our algorithm generalizes the well known construction of the coarsest nonsingular subdivision of a fan in \(\mathbb{Z}^ 2\) as given by the Hirzebruch-Jung continued fraction algorithm. For each three-dimensional toric variety \(X = X_ \Delta\), we thus obtain a desingularization \(X' = X_{\nabla (\Delta)}\) of \(X\) whose Euler characteristic \(E(X')\) satisfies the inequality \(E(X') \leq - E(X) + 2 \sum_{\sigma \in \Delta^{(3)}} \text{mult} (\sigma)\). It is shown that this upper bound is best possible.