Normality of affine toric varieties associated with Hermitian symmetric spaces (Q1890901)

Let an algebraic torus \(T\) of dimension \(n\) act on a vector space \(V\) of dimension \(N\) via characters \(\chi_1,\dots \chi_N\) of \(T\). Let \(A\) be a polynomial ring \(\mathbb{Z}[z_1,\dots z_N]\) and let \(L\) be the subgroup of \(\mathbb{Z}^N\) consisting of the elements \(a=(a_j)_{1\leq j\leq N}\) such that \(\sum_{j=1}^N a_j\chi_j=0\). The author studies the ring \(R=A/\sum_{a\in L} Az_a\), where \(\sum_{a\in L} Az_a\) is the ideal of \(A\) consisting of sums \(\sum_{a\in L} p_az_a\) with \(p_a\in A\). In this situation, Gel'fand and his collaborators studied generalized hypergeometric systems. For such systems, the \(b\)-functions are introduced. The normality of the algebra \(R\) is used in order to define these \(b\)-functions. The main aim of this paper is to prove that the algebra \(R\) is normal. The author also determines a minimal system of generators of the ideal \(\sum _{a\in L} Az_a\).