Let be the consecutive primitive toric ray vectors around the compact invariant curve . Smoothness gives oriented determinants , hence for an integer . Choose an algebraic torus character with and . The principal divisor on a toric variety has coefficient one at , coefficient at , and zero at . The other invariant curves do not meet , while each adjacent one meets it transversely once. Intersecting this principal divisor with the proper curve gives . This proves the self-intersection formula for a toric surface divisor even when the ambient surface is not complete.
If , then and . The vectors form a lattice basis since , and their toric cone is the union of the two toric cones adjacent to . Deleting is consequently a smooth toric fan coarsening. Its inverse is precisely the toric blowup at a torus-fixed point, obtained by inserting the sum of the two primitive basis vectors. Conversely, that insertion gives , and hence algebraic self-intersection . Thus the toric contraction of a minus-one curve satisfies
For the cyclic quotient description, first take a strongly convex toric cone of dimension two. Write its primitive boundary vectors as and put , . Since is primitive, extend it to a basis of and write with . Thus is cyclic of order . In the lattice , the toric cone is smooth and its toric variety is . Passing to the larger lattice takes the finite quotient whose invariant monomials are precisely those in the smaller dual lattice . Relative to the two boundary coordinates, , so a generator acts with weights modulo . Replacing that generator by a suitable power makes the first weight one and the second some with and . Therefore, for the singular case,
The cyclic quotient surface singularity can equivalently be described by the first-quadrant toric cone in
Indeed its coordinate ring is . Characteristic zero ensures the stated ordinary finite-group quotient interpretation.
The restriction to singular toric cones of dimension two is necessary for . A smooth toric cone has and gives with the trivial quotient. A toric cone of dimension one gives , and the zero toric cone gives . These latter surfaces cannot be a quotient of the displayed kind, since they have nonconstant invertible regular functions, whereas has only constant units. Thus the blanket affine-surface wording requires these separate cases.
For the singular case, compute the negative continued fraction by the ceiling form of the Euclidean algorithm. Start with , , and, while , set
Then , so the process terminates at . The gcd is unchanged at each step, hence . Since , every . Rearranging the recurrence gives
Now define lattice vectors
To verify this Hirzebruch–Jung resolution algorithm, write with , and . Induction gives , so . It also gives . Thus every adjacent pair has absolute determinant , the covolume of , and is a basis of . The increase strictly, while the decrease to zero, so these toric rays occur in order inside the first quadrant. At termination, and the determinant identity gives , hence . All boundary and inserted vectors are primitive because they occur in lattice bases.
Subdivide the quadrant by . Every resulting toric cone is smooth by the smoothness criterion for a toric variety, and the fan subdivision gives a proper birational toric morphism, hence a resolution. Each interior toric ray has a complete one-dimensional star, so its exceptional curve of a surface resolution is . The recurrence yields
This proves minimality: no exceptional curve of a surface resolution can be contracted to a smooth point by the Castelnuovo contraction criterion. There is also a direct toric fan check. For fixed , the determinants of with , measured in units of the lattice covolume, satisfy the same recurrence with coefficients at least two and initial values zero and one. They are at least . Omitting any intervening toric ray therefore leaves a toric cone of determinant at least two, so no nontrivial coarsening is smooth. Thus this is the minimal resolution of a cyclic quotient surface singularity.
If all exceptional algebraic self-intersections are , all and induction gives . Since are coprime, this forces , . Conversely has exactly coefficients equal to two. Therefore
For the final toric fan, the minimal smooth fan subdivision of the toric cone from to inserts the toric rays for . Adjacent determinants have absolute value one, and , so its inserted curves have algebraic self-intersection and it is the minimal fan subdivision just described. The second original toric cone, from to , is already smooth.
Write and . In the resolved toric fan, the rightmost interior toric ray obeys , so its curve has algebraic self-intersection and can be blown down to a smooth point. After deleting it, the same relation applies to the new rightmost interior toric ray. Continue deleting in that order. Each deletion is the inverse of a toric blowup at a torus-fixed point. The last toric fan has only the quadrant toric cone and defines . Consequently
All maps induce the identity on the dense algebraic torus, so this composite is the same morphism as . The intermediate smooth toric fans need not include the singular toric fan .