Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 17 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
First suppose has full dimension in . Form the toric cone over it in and the graded semigroup algebrawhere degree zero contains only . The lattice semigroup is finitely generated by the Gordan lemma. The projective toric variety of a lattice polytope is . Using all lattice points in all dilates avoids any assumption that the degree-one lattice points generate the ring.
For each vertex of , the degree-zero part after inverting isIndeed its exponents are with . Conversely, every lattice point of the tangent toric cone has this form for sufficiently large integral . These charts cover the Proj construction: each point of a dilate is a rational convex combination of vertices, so some power of its monomial is a product of vertex monomials. Their dual cones are the vertex toric cones of the inward normal fan of a polytope. The normal toric fan is complete because every linear functional on attains its minimum on a convex face. This describes as a complete toric variety. Translating by gives the graded isomorphism , so containing the origin is unnecessary. If is not full-dimensional, translate a lattice vertex to zero and use ; the construction is then complete of dimension .
For the simplex in question put . Its inequalities are and , so its inward normal toric rays are and . Here the in the dual space denote the standard dual basis. Apply the real linear map . It carries these toric rays and their convex face incidences to the standard simplex fan, with toric rays . The transported lattice isWith , the primitive vectors of this toric fan in are and . The latter is primitive because requires each to be integral, whose smallest positive solution is . Their unique primitive relation isThus mutual coprimality beyond the displayed common gcd condition is not needed.
For a general complete toric variety, introduce one variable for each toric ray. Its toric homogeneous coordinate ring, or Cox ring, isThe toric divisor class sequence is , where the first map is . Thus the graded piece has basis the monomials with and . For an invariant divisor , monomials in degree correspond to algebraic torus characters through . This also identifies that graded piece with the global sections of .
In our example , and its map to sends to . The quotient is therefore , via . In particular and , giving the explicit graded isomorphismThe target has the grading inherited from ordinary total degree in . Its displayed generators are algebraically independent, which proves injectivity as well as surjectivity onto that subring.
To obtain the quotient, the toric irrelevant ideal is generated by . Here each maximal toric cone omits exactly one toric ray, so it is , and the open set is . The diagonalizable algebraic group with algebraic torus character group is . Its action on the Cox coordinates is dictated by their degrees, namelyHere the name the independent Cox coordinates; the graded-subring realization above does not change their weights. More concretely, the quotient chart where has coordinate ring , the invariant ring for this action. These charts glue to and to the specified toric fan charts. Positive weights make each orbit closed inside the punctured affine space, and in characteristic zero the finite stabilizers cause no failure of this geometric quotient. This is the weighted projective space construction.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 17 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The dense algebraic torus has coordinate ring , a Laurent polynomial ring and hence a unique factorization domain. Its divisor class group is therefore zero. Restrict an arbitrary Weil divisor to the algebraic torus and choose a rational function on an algebraic variety whose divisor there is . Then is supported on the algebraic torus boundary. The prime divisors in that boundary are precisely the corresponding to the toric rays, by the torus orbit-cone correspondence. ConsequentlySince the variety is smooth, every Weil divisor is Cartier. This gives invariant representatives for all divisor classes, without assuming that the original divisor was invariant.
Now use such a representative. The associated vector space isThe principal divisor on a toric variety formula gives . Define the lattice polytope of a toric divisorFor a maximal toric cone , its basic toric ray vectors are a basis of , so there is a unique integral with on its toric rays. The algebraic torus character is a local frame for on . Every global section restricts on the algebraic torus to a finite Laurent polynomial . Relative to this frame, regularity on means . Since distinct algebraic torus characters are independent, this holds exactly when each exponent with nonzero coefficient satisfies the inequalities for the toric rays of . Taking all charts provesCompleteness makes bounded when nonempty: a nonzero recession vector would be nonnegative on every toric ray of a complete toric fan, and therefore on all of , which is impossible. The displayed space is consequently finite-dimensional.
At the torus-fixed point in the smooth chart , a section has local monomial . Its value is nonzero exactly when this monomial is constant, namely when . Thus if the complete linear system of a divisor has no base point, some section is nonzero at , forcing . Conversely, if for every maximal toric cone, its algebraic torus character is a global section whose local expression on is one. It therefore vanishes nowhere on that whole chart, and these charts cover . This proves the toric basepoint-free criterion:The analogous toric ampleness criterion, stated without proof, replaces the inequalities off by strict ones:Equivalently, the normal fan of a polytope is exactly .
For the final fan subdivision, take so that is a new toric ray, as the construction requires. The vectors are a lattice basis, so their sum is primitive. Replacing any one basis vector by this sum gives another basis. Thus the star subdivision gives a smooth toric blowup at a torus-fixed point , with algebraic exceptional divisor . On the old chart, a local equation of is , whose order on the new toric ray is . All old toric ray coefficients are unchanged. ThereforeWe prove ampleness of directly by inequalities, giving the ample divisor after blowing up a torus-fixed point result.
Let be the basis of dual to . On the new maximal toric cone , which omits , the required local algebraic torus character isIndeed its pairings on , , are , while its pairing on is , exactly the negative of the new coefficient . Its inequality on the omitted old toric ray has strict gap one:For any toric ray outside the original toric cone, put . The original ampleness gives positive integers , and the new strict gaps arefor all sufficiently large .
For any unchanged maximal toric cone , the local algebraic torus character is . All strict inequalities on old toric rays follow from those for . Its inequality on the new toric ray has gapEach summand is nonnegative, and at least one is positive because cannot contain all its toric rays. Hence is a positive integer, making this gap positive for . There are only finitely many remaining inequalities. For example, any integer satisfyingworks, with the inner maximum omitted when its index set is empty. The toric ampleness criterion now givesThe new-ray assumption is essential to the printed construction. In dimension one, and the fan subdivision is unchanged, so the two purported distinct divisors coincide. If the displayed definition of is applied literally on with coefficients , , then has degree one but has degree , contradicting the conclusion. The argument above applies to the intended blowup in dimension at least two.
For a lattice polytope , form the semigroup of lattice points with and , using only in degree zero. Its semigroup algebra is graded by , and its Proj construction gives . The chart at a lattice vertex is ; these charts give the normal fan of a polytope construction. For a polytope of smaller dimension, use its intrinsic affine lattice after translation.
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