Lattice polygons and families of curves on rational surfaces (Q644672)

Every algebraic surface in projective space can be generated by a family of curves in projective space. In this paper, the authors construct all minimal degree families of rational curves on arbitrary rational surfaces. The authors solve this problem by reducing it to the case of polarized rational surfaces. The authors also present the solution to the particular case of finding toric families of minimal degree on a given toric surface. This problem is reduced to the `vineyard problem' that consists in finding the discrete directions which minimize the width of a given convex lattice polytope. Even though the result about toric surfaces is subsumed by the main result about rational surfaces the elegant and elementary proof of the vineyard problem justify its inclusion. This brilliant redundancy and the crystal presentation makes this a lovely article to read.