Asymptotically maximal families of hypersurfaces in toric varieties (Q2498410)

Along the Smith-Thom inequality, playing the key role in the topology of real algebraic varieties, the total \({\mathbb Z}/2\) Betti number of a real algebraic variety does not exceed that for the complexification. Real varieties realizing equality in the Smith-Thom bound are called maximal. The Viro-Itenberg theorem (unpublished) states that for any degree and dimension, there exists a maximal real non-singular projective hypersurface (the plane curve case was settled by A. Harnack in 1876). The author applies the Viro-Itenberg construction (which is a particular case of the Viro patchworking method) to constructing maximal real hypersurfaces in toric varieties and proves the following result: in any toric variety \(T_\Delta\) associated with a convex lattice polytope \(\Delta\) there exists a sequence of real hypersurfaces \(M_k\), \(k=1,2,\dots\), such that \(b_*(M_k({\mathbb R}),{\mathbb Z}/2)/b_*(M_k({\mathbb C}),{\mathbb Z}/2)\to 1\) as \(k\to\infty\). A similar statement holds for complete intersections in toric varieties. The author gives also examples of polytopes \(\Delta\) such that the linear system, corresponding to \(\Delta\), on the toric variety \(T_\Delta\) does not contain maximal real hypersurfaces.