MATH 7670: Toric Varieties Spring 2013

Instructor: Tara Holm

This course will provide an introduction to toric varieties in algebraic and symplectic geometry. We will draw on (at least) three sources:

• Introduction to Toric Varieties by William Fulton
• Toric Varieties by David Cox, John Little, and Hal Schenck
• Lectures on Toric Varieties by Nick Proudfoot

This is a rich subject with connections to combinatorics, commutative algebra, and topology. As Fulton notes, “toric varieties have provided a remarkably fertile testing ground for general theories.” Working with this explicit class of varieties allows us to get our hands dirty in computation, and understand highfalutin general theory quite explicitly in this specific context.