Algebraic volumes of divisors

Abstract

The volume of a Cartier divisor on a projective variety is a nonnegative real number that measures the asymptotic growth of sections of multiples of the divisor. It is known that the set of these numbers is countable and has the structure of a multiplicative semigroup. At the same time it still remains unknown which nonnegative real algebraic numbers arise as volumes of Cartier divisors on some variety. Here we extend a construction first used by Cutkosky, and use the theory of real multiplication on abelian varieties to obtain a large class of examples of algebraic volumes. We also show that $\pi$ arises as a volume.