Seshadri constants via toric degenerations (Q475822)

Seshadri constants, denoted by \(\epsilon(X,L,p),\) are real numbers associated to a line bundle \(L\) on a projective variety \(X\) for every point \(p\in X.\) They provide a measure of local positivity of the line bundle. For example the Seshadri constant is positive at every point if the line bundle is ample. Their study is related to higher order embeddings, fibrations, foliations and more. Unfortunately, even if a series of bounds have been established, it is still difficult to compute them exactly. Even the conjecture that they should be rational is still open in full generality. Toric geometry, thanks to its combinatorial structure and its link to convex geometry, is more accessible and provides more realistic computational tools. It was in fact known that Seshadri constants at the points fixed by the torus action are integers and that they are lower bounds for the Seshadri constant at any point. In this paper the author proves new lower bounds for the Seshadri constant at the general point (of the torus) via projections induced by lattice homomorphisms. This result proves useful even outside the toric category. As very general hypersurfaces \(X\) can be degenerate to toric hypersurfaces and the Seshadri constants in a flat family are lower semi-continuous, Ito proves that for such \(n\)-dimensional hypersurface, \(X\subset {\mathbb P}^{n+1},\) of degree \(d,\) the Seshadri constant is bounded above by \(\root{n}\of{d}\) and blow by its integral floor \(\lfloor\root{n}\of{d}\rfloor.\) Finally, using similar arguments of toric degeneration, Ito computes the Seshadri constant at a general point for all families of Fano threefold of Picard rank 1 (completely classified by Iskovskih).