On the number of vertices of Newton-Okounkov polygons

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Publication:2104836



Abstract: The Newton--Okounkov body of a big divisor D on a smooth surface is a numerical invariant in the form of a convex polygon. We study the geometric significance of the shape of Newton--Okounkov polygons of ample divisors, showing that they share several important properties of Newton polygons on toric surfaces. In concrete terms, sides of the polygon are associated to some particular irreducible curves, and their lengths are determined by the intersection numbers of these curves with D. As a consequence of our description we determine the numbers k such that D admits some k-gon as a Newton--Okounkov body, elucidating the relationship of these numbers with the Picard number of the surface, which was first hinted at by work of K"uronya, Lozovanu and Maclean.


In the paper under review the authors study a very natural question regarding the number of vertices of Newton-Okounkov polygons associated with big divisors on smooth algebraic surfaces. Let \(S\) be a normal projective variety of dimension \(d\) and let \(D\) be a big divisor class on \(S\). We define the admissible flag for \(S\) which is \[ Y_{\bullet}  : S= Y_{0} \supset \dots \supset Y_{d} = \{pt\}, \] where \(Y_{i}\) is an irreducible subvariety of codimension \(i\) and \(Y_{d}\) is smooth for each subvariety \(Y_{i}\). Let \(g_{i}\) be a local equation for \(Y_{i}\) in \(Y_{i-1}\) around the point \(Y_{d}\). Then the flag \(Y_{\bullet}\) determines a rank \(d\) valuation \(\nu_{Y_{\bullet}}\) on the field of rational functions of \(S\), namely \(\nu_{Y_{\bullet}}(f) = (v_{1}(f), \dots, v_{d}(f))\), where \(v_{i}\) are defined recursively setting \(f_{1}=f\) and \[ v_{i}(f) = \mathrm{ord}(f_{i}), \quad i=1, \dots, d, \] \[ f_{i+1} = (f_{i}/g_{i}^{v_{i}(f)})_{|Y_{i}}, \quad i = 1, \dots, d-1. \] Based on that the Newton-Okounkov body of \(D\) with respect to \(Y_{\bullet}\) is the convex body \[ \triangle_{Y_{\bullet}}(D) = \overline{\bigg\{\frac{\nu_{Y_{\bullet}}(s)}{k}  : s \in H^{0}(S, \mathcal{O}_{S}(kD)) \bigg\}}. \] Whereas the volume of the Newton-Okounkov body is well-known, still its shape, and its dependence on \(Y_{\bullet}\), is an intriguing subject of study. The main aim of the paper is to understand this question when \(d=2\), where the prominent role is played by the Zariski decomposition of \(D\). In order to formulate the main result of the paper under review, recall the following notations. Let \(C_{1}, \dots, C_{k} \subset S\) be a configuration of negative curves. Assume that \(N\) is effective and the associated intersection matrix is negative definite. We denote by \(\mathrm{mc}(N)\) the largest number of irreducible components of a connected divisor contained in \(N\), and by \(\mathrm{mv}(N)\) we mean \(k+\mathrm{mc}(N)+4\) if \(k < \rho(S)-1\) and \(k+\mathrm{mc}(N)+3\) if \(k=\rho(S)-1\), where \(\rho(S)\) denotes the Picard number of \(S\). Given a smooth projective surface \(S\), let \[ \mathrm{mv}(S) =\max \{\mathrm{mv}(N):N = C_{1} +\dots+C_{k} \text{ is negative definite}\}. \] Main Result. On every smooth projective surface \(S\) and for every big divisor \(D\) \[ \max_{Y_{\bullet}} \{ \# \text{ vertices of } \triangle_{Y_{\bullet}}(D)\} \leq \mathrm{mv}(S), \] where the maximum is taken over all admissible flags \(Y\). If \(D\) is ample, then for every \(3 \leq r \leq\mathrm{mv}(S)\) there exists a flag \(Y_{\bullet}\) such that \(\triangle_{Y_{\bullet}}(D)\) has exactly \(r\) vertices. Corollary. Given a positive integer \(\rho\) there exists a projective smooth surface \(S\) with Picard number \(\rho = \rho(S)\), an admissible flag \(Y_{\bullet}\), and a divisor \(D\) such that \(\triangle_{Y_{\bullet}}(D)\) has exactly \(2\rho + 1\) vertices.











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