Extremal metrics on toric surfaces (Q1621462)

Let \(M\) be a compact toric surface with Delzant polytope \(\Delta\), endowed with the natural Kähler form \(\omega_0\) constructed by Guillemin from \(\Delta\). Under a certain stability assumption, the authors prove the existence of a smooth \({\mathbb T}^2\)-invariant metric \(\omega\in[\omega_0]\) on \(M\), with prescribed scalar curvature. Roughly speaking, the \({\mathbb T}^2\)-invariant metrics \(\omega\in[\omega_0]\) are in correspondence to the set of smooth strictly convex functions \(f\) on \({\mathbb R}^2\) such that the gradient \(\nabla f\) maps \({\mathbb R}^2\) onto \(\Delta\). Finding a \({\mathbb T}^2\)-invariant metric \(\omega\in[\omega_0]\) determined by \(f\), with prescribed scalar curvature, translates into solving the Abreu equation \(S(u)=K\) on \(\Delta\), for a given function \(K\), where \(u\) is the Legendre transform of \(f\). \par The main result of the paper is that if \(K\in C^\infty(\overline\Delta)\) is a function which does not vanish identically on any edge of \(\Delta\) and the pair \((\Delta,K)\) is uniformly stable (in a sense of \textit{S. K. Donaldson} [Geom. Funct. Anal. 19, No. 1, 83--136 (2009; Zbl 1177.53067)], see Definition 2.8 in the paper under review), then there exists a smooth \({\mathbb T}^2\)-invariant metric \(\omega\in[\omega_0]\) on \(M\) such that the scalar curvature of \(\omega\) is \(K\).