Smoothness, Semistability, and Toroidal Geometry

Authors Dan Abramovich, Aise Johan de Jong

Publication date 14 December 1997

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/alg-geom/9603018

divisor of normal crossings resolution of singularities toroidal embedding

Global theory and resolution of singularities (algebro-geometric aspects) (14E15) Toric varieties, Newton polyhedra, Okounkov bodies (14M25)

Abstract: We provide a new proof of the following result: Let

X

be a variety of finite type over an algebraically closed field

k

of characteristic 0, let

Z s u b s e t X

be a proper closed subset. There exists a modification

f : X_{1} a r X

, such that

X_{1}

is a quasi-projective nonsingular variety and

Z_{1} = f^{- 1} (Z)_{e} d

is a strict divisor of normal crossings. Needless to say, this theorem is a weak version of Hironaka's well known theorem on resolution of singularities. Our proof has the feature that it builds on two standard techniques of algebraic geometry: semistable reduction for curves, and toric geometry. Another proof of the same result was discovered independently by F. Bogomolov and T. Pantev. The two proofs are similar in spirit but quite different in detail.

Review text

In this paper we can get the details of the paper reviewed above [\textit{D. Abramovich} and \textit{J. Wang}, Math. Res. Lett. 4, No. 2--3, 427--433 (1997; Zbl 0906.14005)]. The authors provide a new proof of Hironaka's well-known theorem on resolution of singularities as follows. Theorem: Let \(X\) be a variety of finite type over an algebraically closed field \(k\) of characteristic 0, let \(Z\subset X\) be a proper closed subset. There exists a modification \(f:X_1\to X\), such that \(X_1\) is a quasi-projective nonsingular variety and \(Z_1= f^{-1} (Z)_{\text{red}}\) is a strict divisor of normal crossings. Structure of the proof: (1) We choose a projection \(X\to P\) of relative dimension 1 and apply semistable reduction to obtain a model \(X'\to P'\) over a suitable Galois base change \(P'\to P\) with Galois group \(G\). (2) We apply induction on the dimension to \(P\). We may assume that \(P\) is smooth, and the discriminant locus of \(X'/G\to P\) is a strict divisor of normal crossings. (3) A few auxiliary blow-ups make the quotient \(X'/G\) toroidal. (4) A theorem of \textit{G. Kempf}, \textit{F. Knudsen}, \textit{D. Mumford} and \textit{B. Saint-Donat} [``Toroidal embeddings, Lect. Notes Math. 339 (1973; Zbl 0271.14017)] about toroidal resolutions finishes the argument.

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