Generalized virtual polytopes and quasitoric manifolds

Abstract: In this paper we develop a theory of volume polynomials of generalized virtual polytopes based on the study of topology of affine subspace arrangements in a real Euclidean space. We apply this theory to obtain a topological version of the BKK Theorem, the Stanley-Reisner and Pukhlikov-Khovanskii type descriptions for cohomology rings of generalized quasitoric manifolds.