Let be the primitive lattice generator of the ray . In the toric divisor class sequence, the first map sends a torus character exponent to its principal divisor on a toric variety:
The second map sends an invariant Weil divisor to its class modulo principal divisors. Completeness makes the rays span , so the first map is injective. These are the maps in the given sequence; its exactness need not be reproved.
For , let
The torus characters with form a basis of . This works for Weil divisors, not only for Cartier divisors. It is the character basis associated to the lattice polytope of a toric divisor.
For a Cartier divisor, the toric ampleness criterion is as follows. Each maximal cone has local Cartier data satisfying on its rays. The divisor is ample exactly when
Equivalently the support function is strictly concave, with these linear pieces. For a Q-Cartier Weil divisor use rational and clear their denominators; the criterion means that a positive multiple is ample Cartier. An arbitrary Weil divisor need not be Q-Cartier, so this qualification cannot be omitted.
Take positive weights , reduced so their common greatest common divisor is one. A toric definition of weighted projective space uses
If the weights are well-formed, meaning for every , the are primitive: the quotient has torsion of order that omitted-weight greatest common divisor. The lattice itself is free because is primitive. The positive relation implies that proper subsets generate pointed cones and that they meet along common faces. Completeness can be seen directly: represent a vector by real coordinates and subtract times . The resulting coordinates are nonnegative and at least one is zero, placing the vector in one of the displayed cones. Their common-face property follows from this unique normalization of each class modulo . This gives the fan of the well-formed weighted projective space.
The dual lattice is
Its map in the divisor sequence is simply inclusion in , so the homomorphism identifies the cokernel with . It is onto by coprimality of all the weights. Thus
Choose integers by the Bezout identity . Then explicitly represents the positive generator .
To verify ampleness in the Weil/Q-Cartier sense, put . On the maximal cone omitting ray , define
This is integral and has . Its pairings with the included rays are , while on the omitted ray they equal . Consequently is Cartier and ample by the numerical criterion. This is an explicit class-group generator of a well-formed weighted projective space.
The generator is generally ample Weil, not Cartier. If the source's word “ample” is interpreted as requiring a Cartier divisor, its generator request is false in general: on , take . On the chart omitting the weight-two ray, the Cartier equations force , which is not in the integral dual lattice. Twice this datum is integral, so the class-one divisor has Cartier index two and no Cartier divisor generates its class group. With the usual ample-Q-Cartier-Weil interpretation, the construction above proves exactly the requested result. This distinction also explains the use of the divisorial spaces rather than assuming an invertible sheaf .
Finally let an ample divisor represent the class-group generator. Its class is the positive generator; the negative generator cannot be ample because a positive Cartier multiple has negative degree on the curves where the positive generator has positive degree. After replacing by a linearly equivalent invariant divisor, write it as with . A character basis element of has exponent with . Set . Then and . Conversely every nonnegative exponent vector of weighted degree gives the unique . Therefore
is a bijection of bases in each degree. Adding and under multiplication adds these nonnegative exponent vectors, so it preserves products and the unit. A different linearly equivalent representative changes the basis by the corresponding rational-function power and gives the same graded-ring isomorphism. Hence the divisorial section ring is the weighted polynomial ring:
The character construction is defined over the ground field , so this is an isomorphism of graded -algebras. It proves the divisorial section ring of a well-formed weighted projective space assertion even when its ample generator is not Cartier.
First suppose has full dimension in . Form the toric cone over it in and the graded semigroup algebra
where 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 is
Indeed 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 is
With , 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 is
Thus 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, is
The 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 isomorphism
The 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, namely
Here 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.
Weighted projective plane Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
This is a two-dimensional weighted projective space. The weighted projective plane is the quotient of by . It is generally singular but is a proper toric surface.
A weighted projective space with positive integer weights is well-formed when the greatest common divisor of the weights with any one weight omitted is one. The quotient toric lattice is free and the images of the coordinate vectors are primitive toric rays. Its fan contains the cones on all proper subsets of these rays.