We call a simplicial complex algebraically rigid if its Stanley-Reisner ring admits no nontrivial infinitesimal deformations, and call it inseparable if does not allow any deformation to other simplicial complexes. Algebraically rigid simplicial complexes are inseparable. In this paper we study inseparability and rigidity of Stanley-Reisner rings, and apply the general theory to letterplace ideals as well as to edge ideals of graphs. Classes of algebraically rigid simplicial complexes and graphs are identified.
Given a spherical homogeneous space G/H of minimal rank, we provide a simple procedure to describe its embeddings as varieties with torus action in terms of divisorial fans. The torus in question is obtained as the identity component of the quotient group N/H, where N is the normalizer of H in G. The resulting Chow quotient is equal to (a blowup of) the simple toroidal compactification of G/(H N^0). In the horospherical case, for example, it is equal to a flag variety, and the slices (coefficients) of the divisorial fan are merely shifts of the colored fan along the colors.
Given a polyhedral cone sigma with smooth two-dimensional faces and, moreover, a lattice point R in the dual cone of sigma, we describe the part of the versal deformation of the associated toric variety TV(sigma) that is built from the deformation parameters of multidegree R. Let Q the polyhedron obtained by intersecting sigma with the hyperplane R=1. Then the base space is (the germ of) an affine scheme that reflects certain possibilities of splitting Q into Minkowski summands.
