Graph hypersurfaces with torus action and a conjecture of Aluffi

Abstract

Generalizing the star graphs of M\"uller-Stach and Westrich, we describe a class of graphs whose associated graph hypersurface is equipped with a non-trivial torus action. For such graphs, we show that the Euler characteristic of the corresponding projective graph hypersurface complement is zero. In contrast, we also show that the Euler characteristic in question can take any integer value for a suitable graph. This disproves a conjecture of Aluffi in a strong sense.