On Fano Schemes of Toric Varieties

Given a finite set of lattice points $\mathcal{A}$, we consider the associated homogeneous binomial ideal $I_\mathcal{A}$ and projective toric variety $X_\mathcal{A}$. We give a concise combinatorial description of all linear subspaces contained in the variety $X_\mathcal{A}$, or, equivalently, all solutions in linear forms to the system of binomial equations determined by $I_\mathcal{A}$. More precisely, we study the Fano scheme $\mathbf{F}_k(X_\mathcal{A})$ whose closed points correspond to $k$-dimensional linear spaces contained in $X_\mathcal{A}$. We show that the irreducible components of $\mathbf{F}_k(X_\mathcal{A})$ are in bijection to maximal Cayley structures for $\mathcal{A}$ of length at least $k$. We explicitly describe these irreducible components and their intersection behavior, characterize when $\mathbf{F}_k(X_\mathcal{A})$ is connected, and prove that if $X_\mathcal{A}$ is smooth in dimension $k$, then every component of $\mathbf{F}_k(X_\mathcal{A})$ is smooth in its reduced structure. Furthermore, in the special case $k=\dim X_\mathcal{A}-1$, we describe the nonreduced structure of $\mathbf{F}_k(X_\mathcal{A})$.