Mini-Workshop: New Developments in Newton-Okounov Bodies

Abstract

The theory of Newton-Okounkov bodies, also called Okounkov bodies, is a new connection between algebraic geometry and convex geometry. It generalizes the well-known and extremely rich correspondence between geometry of toric varieties and combinatorics of convex integral polytopes. Okounkov bodies were first introduced by Andrei Okounkov, in a construction motivated by a question of Khovanskii concerning convex bodies govering the multiplicities of representations. Recently, Kaveh-Khovanskii and Lazarsfeld-Mustata have generalized and systematically developed Okounkov’s construction, showing the existence of convex bodies which capture much of the asymptotic information about the geometry of (X,D) where X is an algebraic variety and D is a big divisor. The study of Okounkov bodies is a new research area with many open questions. The goal of this mini-workshop was to bring together a core group of algebraic/symplectic geometers currently working on this topic to establish the groundwork for future development of this area.