A characterization of toric varieties in characteristic p

Abstract: If $X$ is a smooth toric variety over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic and $L$ is an invertible sheaf on $X$, it is known that $F_* L$, the push-forward of $L$ along the Frobenius morphism of $X$, is a direct sum of invertible sheaves. We show that this property characterizes smooth projective toric varieties.