On stability of tangent bundle of toric varieties

Abstract

Let X be a nonsingular complex projective toric variety. We address the question of semi-stability as well as stability for the tangent bundle T X. In particular, a complete answer is given when X is a Fano toric variety of dimension four with Picard number at most two, complementing the earlier work of Nakagawa (Tohoku. Math. J. 45 (1993) 297–310; 46 (1994) 125–133). We also give an infinite set of examples of Fano toric varieties for which TX is unstable; the dimensions of this collection of varieties are unbounded. Our method is based on the equivariant approach initiated by Klyachko (Izv. Akad. Nauk. SSSR Ser. Mat. 53 (1989) 1001–1039, 1135) and developed further by Perling (Math. Nachr. 263/264 (2004) 181–197) and Kool (Moduli spaces of sheaves on toric varieties, Ph.D. thesis (2010) (University of Oxford); Adv. Math. 227 (2011) 1700–1755).