Towards a combinatorial Intersection Cohomology for Fans

The real intersection cohomology of a toric variety is described in a purely combinatorial way using methods of elementary commutative algebra only. We define, for arbitrary fans, the notion of a ``minimal extension sheaf'' on the fan as an axiomatic characterization of the equivariant intersection cohomology sheaf. This provides a purely algebraic interpretation of Stanley's generalized f- and g-vector of an arbitrary polytope or complete fan under a natural vanishing condition. -- The results presented in this note originate from joint work with G.Barthel, J.-P.Brasselet and L.Kaup, continuing earlier research (see math.AG/9904159). A detailed exposition will appear elsewhere (see math.AG/0002181).Comment: 8 pages, TeX, special macros are included, To appear in CRAS, Acad. Sci. Pari