Gauss maps of toric varieties

DOI10.2748/TMJ/1505181625MaRDI QIDQ1683771zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Katsuhisa Furukawa, Atsushi Ito

Publication date 1 December 2017

Published in Tôhoku Mathematical Journal. Second Series (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1403.0793, https://projecteuclid.org/euclid.tmj/1505181625

zbMATH Keywords

toric varieties

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Toric varieties, Newton polyhedra, Okounkov bodies (14M25)

Abstract: We investigate Gauss maps of (not necessarily normal) projective toric varieties over an algebraically closed field of arbitrary characteristic. The main results are as follows: (1) The structure of the Gauss map of a toric variety is described in terms of combinatorics in any characteristic. (2) We give a developability criterion in the toric case. In particular, we show that any toric variety whose Gauss map is degenerate must be the join of some toric varieties in characteristic zero. (3) As applications, we provide two constructions of toric varieties whose Gauss maps have some given data (e.g., fibers, images) in positive characteristic.

Review text

For a projective variety \(X\subset\mathbb P^N\), of dimension \(n\), defined over an algebraically closed field \(K\) (of arbitrary characteristic), the Gauss map is the rational map \(\gamma: X\dashrightarrow G(n,N)\) which sends a smooth point of \(X\) to the point of the Grassmannian which parameterizes the tangent \(n\)-space to \(X\). Several properties of the Gauss map are known when \(X\) is a general variety. The authors investigate the special case in which \(X\) is a toric variety, whose torus action extends to \(\mathbb P^N\). Such varieties \(X\) are associated to the choice of a free abelian group \(M\) of rank \(n\) and a finite subset \(A =\{u_0,\dots,u_N\}\) of \(M\). The authors prove that, by setting \(B=\{u_{i_0}+\dots+u_{i_n}: u_{i_0},\dots,u_{i_n}\) span \(M\otimes K\}\), then the image of \(\gamma\) is the toric variety associated to \(B\). The authors also describe, in terms of the toric structure, the restriction of \(\gamma\) to the torus \(T_M\subset X\). As a consequence, the authors find that the Gauss map of a toric variety \(X\) as above is degenerate if and only if \(X\) is the join of torus invariant subvarieties. The authors also prove that given two toric varieties, \(Y\subset\mathbb P^M\) and \(Z\), such that \(\dim(Y)+\dim(Z)\geq M\), then there exists a toric variety \(X\) whose Gauss image \(\gamma(X)\) is projectively equivalent to \(Z\) and such that the general fibers of \(\gamma\) are projectively equivalent to \(Y\).

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Cited in

(11)

• Structure of Gauss maps
• On the Gauss algebra associated to a rational map \(\mathbb{P}^d\to \mathbb{P}^n\)
• The Gaussian map for smooth toric surfaces
• On separable higher Gauss maps
• A note on higher-order Gauss maps
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 446403 (Why is no real title available?)
• On defectivity of families of full-dimensional point configurations
• A combinatorial description of dual defects of toric varieties
• Cartier isomorphism for toric varieties
• Bronowski's conjecture and the identifiability of projective varieties
• On the singular loci of higher secant varieties of Veronese embeddings

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