Toric Varieties.

Toric varieties are fundamental examples in algebraic geometry, 
since their underlying combinatorial structure gives powerful 
tools for their study that are not available in general.

This is a course on toric varieties from the book "Introduction 
to Toric Varieties" by William Fulton. There will be supplementary 
readings from "Discriminants, Resultants and Multidimensional 
Determinants" by Gelfand, Kapranov and Zelevinsky. The latter book 
is freely available for download through SpringerLing from any 
Department computer.

This course is intended for students who have seen some algebraic 
geometry. If you have taken: Algebraic Geometry OR Computational 
Algebraic Geometry OR Commutative and Homological Algebra, you can 
take this course.

If you have not taken any of these, but have taken a full year of 
graduate algebra, and you are interested in this material, feel free 
to email me (laura@math) to see whether you can do additional readings 
to prepare for the course.