We consider a fan as a ringed space (with finitely many points). We develop the corresponding sheaf theory and functors, such as direct image Rπ* (π is a subdivision of a fan), Verdier duality, etc. The distinguished sheaf ${\cal L}_\Phi$, called the minimal sheaf plays the role of an equivariant intersection cohomology complex on the corresponding toric variety (which exists if Φ is rational). Using ${\cal L}_\Phi$ we define the intersection cohomology space IH(Φ). It is conjectured that a strictly convex piecewise linear function on Φ acts as a Lefschetz operator on IH(Φ). We show that this conjecture implies Stanley's conjecture on the unimodality of the generalized h-vector of a convex polytope.

We study Kähler surfaces with harmonic anti-self-dual Weyl tensor. We provide an explicit local description, which we use to obtain the complete classification in the compact case. We give new examples of extremal Kähler metrics, including Kähler–Einstein metrics and conformally Einstein Kähler metrics. We also extend some of our results to almost Kähler 4-manifolds, providing new examples of Ricci-flat almost Kähler metrics which are not Kähler.

We give a geometric proof of a formula, due to Segal and Wilson, which describes the order of vanishing of the Riemann theta function in the direction which corresponds to the direction of the tangent space of a Riemann surface at a marked point. While this formula appears in the work of Segal and Wilson as a by-product of some nontrivial constructions from the theory of integrable systems (loop groups, infinite-dimensional Grassmannians, tau functions, Schur polynomials, etc.) our proof only uses the classical theory of linear systems on Riemann surfaces.

In this paper, we consider a family of elliptic curves over ${\open Q}$ with 2-torsion part ${\open Z}_2$. We prove that, for every such elliptic curve, a positive proportion of quadratic twists have Mordell–Weil rank 0.