A description of complete normal varieties with lower dimensional torus action has been given by Altmann, Hausen, and Suess, generalizing the theory of toric varieties. Considering the case where the acting torus T has codimension one, we describe T-invariant Weil and Cartier divisors and provide formulae for calculating global sections, intersection numbers, and Euler characteristics. As an application, we use divisors on these so-called T-varieties to define new evaluation codes called T-codes. We find estimates on their minimum distance using intersection theory. This generalizes the theory of toric codes and combines it with AG codes on curves. As the simplest application of our general techniques we look at codes on ruled surfaces coming from decomposable vector bundles. Already this construction gives codes that are better than the related product code. Further examples show that we can improve these codes by constructing more sophisticated T-varieties. These results suggest to look further for good codes on T-varieties.
Given an effective action of an (n-1)-dimensional torus on an n-dimensional normal affine variety, Mumford constructs a toroidal embedding, while Altmann and Hausen give a description in terms of a polyhedral divisor on a curve. We compare the fan of the toroidal embedding with this polyhedral divisor.
We find polyhedral divisors corresponding to the torus action of complexity one on affine trinomial hypersurfaces. Explicit computations for particular classes of such hypersurfaces including Pham-Brieskorn surfaces and rational trinomial hypersurfaces are given.
We provide a complete description of normal affine varieties with effective algebraic torus action in terms of what we call proper polyhedral divisors on semiprojective varieties. Our theory extends classical cone constructions of Dolgachev, Demazure and Pinkham to the multigraded case, and it comprises the theory of affine toric varieties.
We show that the presentation of affine $\mathbb{T}$-varieties of complexity one in terms of polyhedral divisors holds over an arbitrary field. We also describe a class of multigraded algebras over Dedekind domains. We study how the algebra associated to a polyhedral divisor changes when we extend the scalars. As another application, we provide a combinatorial description of affine $\mathbf{G}$-varieties of complexity one over a field, where $\mathbf{G}$ is a (not-nescessary split) torus, by using elementary facts on Galois descent. This class of affine $\mathbf{G}$-varieties is described via …
In this paper we classify SL_2-actions on normal affine T-varieties that are normalized by the torus T. This is done in terms of a combinatorial description of T-varieties given by Altmann and Hausen. The main ingredient is a generalization of Demazure's roots of the fan of a toric variety. As an application we give a description of special SL_2-actions on normal affine varieties. We also obtain, in our terms, the classification of quasihomogeneous SL_2-threefolds due to Popov.
The Cox ring of a so-called Mori Dream Space (MDS) is finitely generated and it is graded over the divisor class group. Hence the spectrum of the Cox ring comes with an action of an algebraic torus whose GIT quotient is the variety in question. We present the associated description of this Cox ring as a polyhedral divisor. Via the shape of its polyhedral coefficients, it connects the equivariant structure of the Cox ring with the world of stable loci and stable multiplicities of linear systems.
We generalize the intersection theory of nef toric (Weil) b-divisors on smooth and complete toric varieties to the case of smooth and complete toroidal embeddings. As a key ingredient we show the existence of a limit measure, supported on the weakly embedded rational conical polyhedral space attached to the toroidal embedding, which arises as a limit of discrete measures defined via tropical intersection theory on the polyhedral space. We prove that the intersection theory of nef toroidal Cartier b-divisors can be extended continuously to nef toroidal Weil b-divisors and that their degree can …
We study the relation between projective T-varieties and their affine cones in the language of the so-called divisorial fans and polyhedral divisors. As an application, we present the Grassmannian Grass(2,n) as a ``fansy divisor'' on the moduli space of stable, n-pointed, rational curves.
We study functions on the class group of a toric variety measuring the rates of growth of the cohomology groups of multiples of divisors. We show that these functions are piecewise polynomial with respect to finite polyhedral chamber decompositions. As applications, we express the self-intersection number of a T-Cartier divisor as a linear combination of the volumes of the bounded regions in the corresponding hyperplane arrangement and prove an asymptotic converse to Serre vanishing.
Using the language of polyhedral divisors and divisorial fans we describe invariant divisors on normal varieties X which admit an effective codimension one torus action. In this picture X is given by a divisorial fan on a smooth projective curve Y. Cartier divisors on X can be described by piecewise affine functions h on the divisorial fan S whereas Weil divisors correspond to certain zero and one dimensional faces of it. Furthermore we provide descriptions of the divisor class group and the canonical divisor. Global sections of line bundles O(D_h) will be determined by a subset of a weight po…
Generalizing the passage from a fan to a toric variety, we provide a combinatorial approach to construct arbitrary effective torus actions on normal, algebraic varieties. Based on the notion of a ``proper polyhedral divisor'' introduced in earlier work, we develop the concept of a ``divisorial fan'' and show that these objects encode the equivariant gluing of affine varieties with torus action. We characterize separateness and completeness of the resulting varieties in terms of divisorial fans, and we study examples like C*-surfaces and projectivizations of (non-split) vector bundles over tori…
We study the tropicalization of intersections of plane curves, under the assumption that they have the same tropicalization. We show that the set of tropical divisors that arise in this manner is a pure dimensional balanced polyhedral complex and compute its dimension. When the genus is at most 1, we show that all the tropical divisors that move in the expected dimension are realizable. As part of the proof, we introduce a combinatorial tool for explicitly constructing large families of realizable tropical divisors.
This is a survey of the language of polyhedral divisors describing T-varieties. This language is explained in parallel to the well established theory of toric varieties. In addition to basic constructions, subjects touched on include singularities, separatedness and properness, divisors and intersection theory, cohomology, Cox rings, polarizations, and equivariant deformations, among others.
We use a theorem of Chow (1949) on line-preserving bijections of Grassmannians to determine the automorphism group of Grassmann codes. Further, we analyze the automorphisms of the big cell of a Grassmannian and then use it to settle an open question of Beelen et al. (2010) concerning the permutation automorphism groups of affine Grassmann codes. Finally, we prove an analogue of Chow's theorem for the case of Schubert divisors in Grassmannians and then use it to determine the automorphism group of linear codes associated to such Schubert divisors. In the course of this work, we also give an alt…
In this paper we study algorithmic aspects of tropical intersection theory. We analyse how divisors and intersection products on tropical cycles can actually be computed using polyhedral geometry. The main focus of this paper is the study of moduli spaces, where the underlying combinatorics of the varieties involved allow a much more efficient way of computing certain tropical cycles. The algorithms discussed here have been implemented in an extension for polymake, a software for polyhedral computations.
Let X be a Mori dream space together with an effective torus action of complexity one. In this note, we construct a polyhedral divisor on a suitable covering of the projective line P^1 which corresponds to the affine spectrum of the Cox ring of X. This description allows for a detailed study of torus orbits and deformations of the latter. Moreover, we present coverings of P^1 together with an action of a finite abelian group A in terms of so-called A-divisors of degree zero on P^1.
We prove that on a Bott-Samelson variety $X$ every movable divisor is nef. This enables us to consider Zariski decompositions of effective divisors, which in turn yields a description of the Mori chamber decomposition of the effective cone. This amounts to information on all possible birational morphisms from $X$. Applying this result, we prove the rational polyhedrality of the global Newton-Okounkov body of a Bott-Samelson variety with respect to the so called `horizontal' flag. In fact, we prove the stronger property of the finite generation of the corresponding global value semigroup.
For a prime power $q$, let $α_q$ be the standard function in the asymptotic theory of codes, that is, $α_q(δ)$ is the largest asymptotic information rate that can be achieved for a given asymptotic relative minimum distance $δ$ of $q$-ary codes. In recent years the Tsfasman-Vlăduţ-Zink lower bound on $α_q(δ)$ was improved by Elkies, Xing, and Niederreiter and Özbudak. In this paper we show further improvements on these bounds by using distinguished divisors of global function fields. We also show improved lower bounds on the corresponding function $α_q^{\rm lin}$ for linear codes.
One-point codes on the Hermitian curve produce long codes with excellent parameters. Feng and Rao introduced a modified construction that improves the parameters while still using one-point divisors. A separate improvement of the parameters was introduced by Matthews considering the classical construction but with two-point divisors. Those two approaches are combined to describe an elementary construction of two-point improved codes. Upon analysis of their minimum distance and redundancy, it is observed that they improve on the previous constructions for a large range of designed distances.
We compute the cones of effective divisors on blowups of $\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^2$ and $\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^3$ in up to 6 points. We also show that all these varieties are log Fano, giving a conceptual explanation for the fact that all the cones we compute are rational polyhedral.
In this paper we give a combinatorial view on the adjunction theory of toric varieties. Inspired by classical adjunction theory of polarized algebraic varieties we define two convex-geometric notions: the Q-codegree and the nef value of a rational polytope P. We define the adjoint polytope P^(s) as the set of those points in P, whose lattice distance to every facet of P is at least s. We prove a structure theorem for lattice polytopes P with high Q-codegree. If P^(s) is empty for some s < 2/(dim(P)+2), then the lattice polytope P has lattice width one. This has consequences in Ehrhart theory a…
For a given curve X and divisor class C, we give lower bounds on the degree of a divisor A such that A and A-C belong to specified semigroups of divisors. For suitable choices of the semigroups we obtain (1) lower bounds for the size of a party A that can recover the secret in an algebraic geometric linear secret sharing scheme with adversary threshold C, and (2) lower bounds for the support A of a codeword in a geometric Goppa code with designed minimum support C. Our bounds include and improve both the order bound and the floor bound. The bounds are illustrated for two-point codes on general…
Any integral convex polytope $P$ in $\mathbb{R}^N$ provides a $N$-dimensional toric variety $X_P$ and an ample divisor $D_P$ on this variety. This paper gives an explicit construction of the algebraic geometric error-correcting code on $X_P$ , obtained by evaluating global section of $\mathcal{L}(D_P)$ on every rational point of $X_P$. This work presents an extension of toric codes analogous to the one of Reed-Muller codes into projective ones, by evaluating on the whole variety instead of considering only points with non-zero coordinates. The dimension of the code is given in terms of the num…
We investigate the Cox ring of a normal complete variety X with algebraic torus action. Our first results relate the Cox ring of X to that of a maximal geometric quotient of X. As a consequence, we obtain a complete description of the Cox ring in terms of generators and relations for varieties with torus action of complexity one. Moreover, we provide a combinatorial approach to the Cox ring using the language of polyhedral divisors. Applied to smooth k*-surfaces, our results give a description of the Cox ring in terms of Orlik-Wagreich graphs. As examples, we explicitly compute the Cox rings o…
Let $X$ be a 3-dimensional affine variety with a faithful action of a 2-dimensional torus $T$. Then the space of first order infinitesimal deformations $T^1(X)$ is graded by the characters of $T$, and the zeroth graded component $T^1(X)_0$ consists of all equivariant first order (infinitesimal) deformations. Suppose that using the construction of such varieties from [1], one can obtain $X$ from a proper polyhedral divisor $\mathscr D$ on $\mathbb P^1$ such that the tail cone of (any of) the used polyhedra is pointed and full-dimensional, and all vertices of all polyhedra are lattice points. Th…
From a rational convex polytope of dimension $r\ge 2$ J.P. Hansen constructed an error correcting code of length $n=(q-1)^r$ over the finite field $\fq$. A rational convex polytope is the same datum as a normal toric variety and a Cartier divisor. The code is obtained evaluating rational functions of the toric variety defined by the polytope at the algebraic torus, and it is an evaluation code in the sense of Goppa. We compute the dimension of the code using cohomology. The minimum distance is estimated using intersection theory and mixed volumes, extending the methods of J.P. Hansen for plane…
We consider linear error correcting codes associated to higher dimensional projective varieties defined over a finite field. The problem of determining the basic parameters of such codes often leads to some interesting and difficult questions in combinatorics and algebraic geometry. This is illustrated by codes associated to Schubert varieties in Grassmannians, called Schubert codes, which have recently been studied. The basic parameters such as the length, dimension and minimum distance of these codes are known only in special cases. An upper bound for the minimum distance is known and it is …
