ECH capacities, Ehrhart theory, and toric varieties (Q2036296)

ECH capacity was introduced [\textit{M. Hutchings}, J. Differ. Geom. 88, No. 2, 231--266 (2011; Zbl 1238.53061)] to study symplectic embedding problems in dimension 4, which received a lot of attention after rich structures and interesting phenomena were observed. In this paper, the author formalises the relation and similarities between ECH capacity and cohomological computations in toric algebraic geometry, which sheds light on bringing tools in algebraic geometry to study ECH capacities. Let \(\Omega\) be a rational convex toric domain, one can associate it with a toric variety \(Y_{\Sigma(\Omega)}\) and a \(\mathbb{Q}\)-Cartier divisor \(D_{\Omega}\) (Definition 4.4). Then Theorem 4.15 asserts that one can compute the \(k\)th ECH capacity of the symplectic toric domain \(X_{\Omega}=\mu^{-1}(\Omega)\) for the standard moment map \(\mu\) on \(\mathbb{C}^2\) as follows: \[c_k(X_{\Omega})=\min\{ D\cdot D_{\Omega}:h^0(Y_{\Sigma(\Omega)},D) \ge k+1\}\] where the minimum ranges over all nef \(\mathbb{Q}\) or \(\mathbb{R}\) divisors on \(Y_{\Sigma(\Omega)}\). The proof is based on the combinatorial description of the ECH capacity for convex toric domains established by \textit{D. Cristofaro-Gardiner} [J. Differ. Geom. 112, No. 2, 199--232 (2019; Zbl 1440.53084)]. Based on the weight sequences and ECH capacity computations from them [loc. cit.], the author introduces tightly constrained toric domains in Definition 5.3 and proves a formula of the cap function for \(X_{\Omega}\) in terms of the the Ehrhart functions of \(\Omega\) or Hilbert functions of divisors on \(Y_{\Sigma(\Omega)}\) (as the leading term).