The versal deformation of an isolated toric Gorenstein singularity (Q1358251)

In this paper the author considers the following problem: Given a toric singularity, describe the versal deformation, its base space or the total space by only combinatorial methods. He restricts himself to the case of Gorenstein toric singularities: \(Y_\sigma\) where \(\sigma\subset \mathbb{R}^{n+1}\) is a cone over a lattice polytope \(Q\subset \mathbb{R}^n\) (i.e. with vertices on a lattice). This description is due to Ishida. The author defines the Minkowski scheme of a lattice polytope \(\widetilde {\mathcal M}\) and builds a flat family over \(\widetilde {\mathcal M}\) with \(Y_\sigma\) as special fiber. In case where \(Y_\sigma\) has an isolated singularity this flat family is the versal deformation. The main tool is a careful study of the Minkowski decomposition sums of the polytope \(Q\). Throughout the paper an example accompanies the general theory.