Picard-graded Betti numbers and the defining ideals of Cox rings (Q731218)

Let \(K\) be an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic and let \(X\) be a smooth projective variety with torsion-free Picard group \(\mathrm{Pic}(X)\) of rank \(r\). Fix a collection of divisors \(D_1,\ldots,D_r\) whose classes form a basis of \(\mathrm{Pic}(X)\), then the Cox ring of \(X\) with respect to this basis is \[ \mathrm{Cox}(X)=\bigoplus_{(m_1,\dots,m_r) \in \mathbb{Z}^r}H^{0}(X,m_1D_1+\cdots+m_rD_r). \] There is a large class of varieties, the so-called Mori Dream Spaces, whose Cox rings are finitely generated algebras, that is \(\mathrm{Cox}(X) \simeq S/I\) for a homogeneous ideal \(I\) in a \(\mathrm{Pic}(X)\)-graded polynomial ring \(S\). The purpose of the article under review is to introduce a tool to study the \(\mathrm{Pic}(X)\)-degrees of the generators of the ideal \(I\). More precisely, the authors introduce complexes of vector spaces whose homology determines the structure of the minimal free resolution of \(\mathrm{Cox}(X)\) over \(S\) and show how the homology of these complexes can be studied by purely geometric methods. As an application of these techniques they prove a conjecture of Batyrev and Popov which gives explicit presentations for the Cox rings of Del Pezzo surfaces of degree at least two.