Complex quotients by nonclosed groups and their stratifications

Abstract

We define the notion of complex stratification by quasifolds and show that such spaces occur as complex quotients by certain nonclosed subgroups of tori associated to convex polytopes. The spaces thus obtained provide a natural generalization to the nonrational case of the notion of toric variety associated with a rational convex polytope.Comment: Research announcement. Updated version, shortened, exposition improved, 8 p