Let P be a convex polytope containing the origin, whose dual is a lattice polytope. Hibi's Palindromic Theorem tells us that if P is also a lattice polytope then the Ehrhart $δ$-vector of P is palindromic. Perhaps less well-known is that a similar result holds when P is rational. We present an elementary lattice-point proof of this fact.
Hibi showed that the polynomial in the numerator of the Ehrhart series of a reflexive polytope is palindromic. We proved that those in the numerator of the Ehrhart series of every graph polytope (defined later) of the bipartite graph is palindromic. From this, one of the conjectures (raised in the A205497 of OEIS \cite{[O]}) follows immediately.
The characterization of lattice polytopes based upon information about their Ehrhart $h^*$-polynomials is a difficult open problem. In this paper, we finish the classification of lattice polytopes whose $h^*$-polynomials satisfy two properties: they are palindromic (so the polytope is Gorenstein) and they consist of precisely three terms. This extends the classification of Gorenstein polytopes of degree two due to Batyrev and Juny. The proof relies on the recent characterization of Batyrev and Hofscheier of empty lattice simplices whose $h^*$-polynomials have precisely two terms. Putting our t…
The cut polytope of a graph is an important object in several fields, such as functional analysis, combinatorial optimization, and probability. For example, Sturmfels and Sullivant showed that the toric ideals of cut polytopes are useful in algebraic statistics. In the theory of lattice polytopes, the $h^{*}$-polynomial is one of the most important invariants. The necessary and sufficient condition in terms of graphs that the $h^{*}$-polynomial of a cut polytope is palindromic is known. However, except for trees, there are no classes of graphs for which the $h^{*}$-polynomial of their cut poly…
A seminal result of E. Ehrhart states that the number of integer lattice points in the dilation of a rational polytope by a positive integer $k$ is a quasi-polynomial function of $k$ --- that is, a "polynomial" in which the coefficients are themselves periodic functions of $k$. Using a result of F. Liu on the Ehrhart polynomials of cyclic polytopes, we construct not-necessarily-convex rational polytopes of arbitrary dimension in which the periods of the coefficient functions appearing in the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial take on arbitrary values.
Quasi-period collapse occurs when the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial of a rational polytope has a quasi-period less than the denominator of that polytope. This phenomenon is poorly understood, and all known cases in which it occurs have been proven with ad hoc methods. In this note, we present a conjectural explanation for quasi-period collapse in rational polytopes. We show that this explanation applies to some previous cases appearing in the literature. We also exhibit examples of Ehrhart polynomials of rational polytopes that are not the Ehrhart polynomials of any integral polytope. Our approach …
We extend to Barvinok's valuations the Euler-Maclaurin expansion formula which we obtained previously for the sum of values of a polynomial over the integral points of a rational polytope. This leads to an improvement of Barvinok's polynomial type algorithm for computing the highest coefficients of the corresponding Ehrhart quasi-polynomial.
When extending the Ehrhart lattice point enumerator $L_P(t)$ to allow real dilation parameters $t$, we lose the invariance under integer translations that exists when $t$ is restricted to be an integer. This paper studies this phenomenon; in particular, it is shown that, for full-dimensional $P$, not only there are infinitely many different functions $L_{P + w}(t)$ (for integer $w$), but that for rational $P$ the collection of these functions identifies $P$ uniquely.
In a previous paper (El. J. Combin. 6 (1999), R37), the author generalized Ehrhart's idea of counting lattice points in dilated rational polytopes: Given a rational polytope, that is, a polytope with rational vertices, we use its description as the intersection of halfspaces, which determine the facets of the polytope. Instead of just a single dilation factor, we allow different dilation factors for each of these facets. We proved that, if our polytope is a simplex, the lattice point counts in the interior and closure of such a vector-dilated simplex are quasipolynomials satisfying an Ehrhart-…
If $P\subset \R^d$ is a rational polytope, then $i_P(n):=#(nP\cap \Z^d)$ is a quasi-polynomial in $n$, called the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial of $P$. The period of $i_P(n)$ must divide $\LL(P)= \min \{n \in \Z_{> 0} \colon nP \text{is an integral polytope}\}$. Few examples are known where the period is not exactly $\LL(P)$. We show that for any $\LL$, there is a 2-dimensional triangle $P$ such that $\LL(P)=\LL$ but such that the period of $i_P(n)$ is 1, that is, $i_P(n)$ is a polynomial in $n$. We also characterize all polygons $P$ such that $i_P(n)$ is a polynomial. In addition, we provide a cou…
We generalize Ehrhart's idea of counting lattice points in dilated rational polytopes: Given a rational simplex, that is, an n-dimensional polytope with n+1 rational vertices, we use its description as the intersection of n+1 halfspaces, which determine the facets of the simplex. Instead of just a single dilation factor, we allow different dilation factors for each of these facets. We give an elementary proof that the lattice point counts in the interior and closure of such a "vector-dilated" simplex are quasipolynomials satisfying an Ehrhart-type reciprocity law. This generalizes the classica…
It is an amazing and a bit counter-intuitive discovery by Micha Perles from the sixties that there are ``non-rational polytopes'': combinatorial types of convex polytopes that cannot be realized with rational vertex coordinates. We describe a simple construction of non-rational polytopes that does not need duality (Perles' ``Gale diagrams''): It starts from a non-rational point configuration in the plane, and proceeds with so-called Lawrence extensions. We also show that there are non-rational polyhedral surfaces in 3-space, a discovery by Ulrich Brehm from 1997. His construction also starts f…
We prove tight lower bounds for the coefficients of the generalized $h$-vector of a rational polytope with a symmetry of prime order that is fixed--point--free on the boundary. These bounds generalize results of R.~Stanley and R.~Adin for the $h$--vector of a simplicial rational polytope with a central symmetry or a symmetry of prime order respectively.
We introduce the property of convex normality of rational polytopes and give a dimensionally uniform lower bound for the edge lattice lengths, guaranteeing the property. As an application, we show that if every edge of a lattice d-polytope P has lattice length at least 4d(d+1) then P is normal. This answers in the positive a question raised in 2007. If P is a lattice simplex whose edges have lattice lengths at least d(d+1) then P is even covered by lattice parallelepipeds. For the approach developed here, it is necessary to involve rational polytopes even for applications to lattice polytopes.
We give a new definition of lattice-face polytopes by removing an unnecessary restriction in the paper "Ehrhart polynomials of lattice-face polytopes", and show that with the new definition, the Ehrhart polynomial of a lattice-face polytope still has the property that each coefficient is the normalized volume of a projection of the original polytope. Furthermore, we show that the new family of lattice-face polytopes contains all possible combinatorial types of rational polytopes.
In a previous paper, we showed how to use the Ehrhart function $L_P(s)$, defined by $L_P(s) = \#(sP \cap \mathbb Z^d)$, to reconstruct a polytope $P$. More specifically, we showed that, for rational polytopes $P$ and $Q$, if $L_{P + w}(s) = L_{Q + w}(s)$ for all integer vectors $w$, then $P = Q$. In this paper we show the same result, but assuming that $P$ and $Q$ are symmetric convex bodies instead of rational polytopes.
We give a local Euler-Maclaurin formula for rational convex polytopes in a rational euclidean space . For every affine rational polyhedral cone C in a rational euclidean space W, we construct a differential operator of infinite order D(C) on W with constant rational coefficients, which is unchanged when C is translated by an integral vector. Then for every convex rational polytope P in a rational euclidean space V and every polynomial function f (x) on V, the sum of the values of f(x) at the integral points of P is equal to the sum, for all faces F of P, of the integral over F of the function …
We present a polynomial time algorithm to compute any fixed number of the highest coefficients of the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial of a rational simplex. Previously such algorithms were known for integer simplices and for rational polytopes of a fixed dimension. The algorithm is based on the formula relating the kth coefficient of the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial of a rational polytope to volumes of sections of the polytope by affine lattice subspaces parallel to k-dimensional faces of the polytope. We discuss possible extensions and open questions.
In Ehrhart theory, the $h^*$-vector of a rational polytope often provide insights into properties of the polytope that may be otherwise obscured. As an example, the Birkhoff polytope, also known as the polytope of real doubly-stochastic matrices, has a unimodal $h^*$-vector, but when even small modifications are made to the polytope, the same property can be very difficult to prove. In this paper, we examine the $h^*$-vectors of a class of polytopes containing real doubly-stochastic symmetric matrices.
Given a finite set of vectors spanning a lattice and lying in a halfspace of a real vector space, to each vector $a$ in this vector space one can associate a polytope consisting of nonnegative linear combinations of the vectors in the set which sum up to $a$. This polytope is called the partition polytope of $a$. If $a$ is integral, this polytope contains a finite set of lattice points corresponding to nonnegative integral linear combinations. The partition polytope associated to an integral $a$ is a rational convex polytope, and any rational convex polytope can be realized canonically as a pa…
We use machine learning to predict the dimension of a lattice polytope directly from its Ehrhart series. This is highly effective, achieving almost 100% accuracy. We also use machine learning to recover the volume of a lattice polytope from its Ehrhart series, and to recover the dimension, volume, and quasi-period of a rational polytope from its Ehrhart series. In each case we achieve very high accuracy, and we propose mathematical explanations for why this should be so.
Greene's rational function $Ψ_P({\bf x})$ is a sum of certain rational functions in ${\bf x}=(x_1, \ldots, x_n)$ over the linear extensions of the poset $P$ (which has $n$ elements), which he introduced in his study of the Murnaghan-Nakayama formula for the characters of the symmetric group. In recent work Boussicault, Féray, Lascoux and Reiner showed that $Ψ_P({\bf x})$ equals a valuation on a cone and calculated $Ψ_P({\bf x})$ for several posets this way. In this paper we give an expression for $Ψ_P({\bf x})$ for any poset $P$. We obtain such a formula using dissections of root polytopes. Mo…
Let P be a d-dimensional lattice polytope. We show that there exists a natural number c_d, only depending on d, such that the multiples cP have a unimodular cover for every natural number c >= c_d. Actually, a subexponential upper bound for c_d is provided, together with an analogous result for unimodular covers of rational cones.
We compute the Betti numbers of the geometric spaces associated to nonrational simple convex polytopes and find that they depend on the combinatorial type of the polytope exactly as in the rational case. This shows that the combinatorial features of the starting polytope are encoded in these generalized toric spaces as they are in their rational counterparts.
A rational polytope is the convex hull of a finite set of points in $\R^d$ with rational coordinates. Given a rational polytope $P \subseteq \R^d$, Ehrhart proved that, for $t\in\Z_{\ge 0}$, the function $#(tP \cap \Z^d)$ agrees with a quasi-polynomial $L_P(t)$, called the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial. The Ehrhart quasi-polynomial can be regarded as a discrete version of the volume of a polytope. We use that analogy to derive a new proof of Ehrhart's theorem. This proof also allows us to quickly prove two other facts about Ehrhart quasi-polynomials: McMullen's theorem about the periodicity of the …
We present a common generalization of counting lattice points in rational polytopes and the enumeration of proper graph colorings, nowhere-zero flows on graphs, magic squares and graphs, antimagic squares and graphs, compositions of an integer whose parts are partially distinct, and generalized latin squares. Our method is to generalize Ehrhart's theory of lattice-point counting to a convex polytope dissected by a hyperplane arrangement. We particularly develop the applications to graph and signed-graph coloring, compositions of an integer, and antimagic labellings.
In this article we introduce a new family of lattice polytopes with rational linear precision. For this purpose, we define a new class of discrete statistical models that we call multinomial staged tree models. We prove that these models have rational maximum likelihood estimators (MLE) and give a criterion for these models to be log-linear. Our main result is then obtained by applying Garcia-Puente and Sottile's theorem that establishes a correspondence between polytopes with rational linear precision and log-linear models with rational MLE. Throughout this article we also study the interplay…
We study the equivariant Ehrhart theory of families of polytopes that are invariant under a non-trivial action of the group with order two. We study families of polytopes whose equivariant $H^*$-polynomial both succeed and fail to be effective, in particular, the symmetric edge polytopes of cycles and the rational cross-polytope. The latter provides a counterexample to the effectiveness conjecture if the requirement that the vertices of the polytope have integral coordinates is loosened to allow rational coordinates. Moreover, we exhibit such a counterexample whose Ehrhart function has period …
In a previous article, we proved tight lower bounds for the coefficients of the generalized $h$-vector of a centrally symmetric rational polytope using intersection cohomology of the associated projective toric variety. Here we present a new proof based on the theory of combinatorial intersection cohomology developed by Barthel, Brasselet, Fieseler and Kaup. This theory is also valid for nonrational polytopes when there are no corresponding toric varieties. So we can establish our bounds for centrally symmetric polytopes even without requiring them to be rational.
The fractional stable set polytope ${\rm FRAC}(G)$ of a simple graph $G$ with $d$ vertices is a rational polytope that is the set of nonnegative vectors $(x_1,\ldots,x_d)$ satisfying $x_i+x_j\le 1$ for every edge $(i,j)$ of $G$. In this paper we show that (i) The $δ$-vector of a lattice polytope $2 {\rm FRAC}(G)$ is alternatingly increasing; (ii) The Ehrhart ring of ${\rm FRAC}(G)$ is Gorenstein; (iii) The coefficients of the numerator of the Ehrhart series of ${\rm FRAC}(G)$ are symmetric, unimodal and computed by the $δ$-vector of $2 {\rm FRAC}(G)$.
For $A\in\mathbb{Z}^{m\times n}$ we investigate the behaviour of the number of lattice points in $P_A(b)=\{x\in\mathbb{R}^n:Ax\leq b\}$, depending on the varying vector $b$. It is known that this number, restricted to a cone of constant combinatorial type of $P_A(b)$, is a quasi-polynomial function if b is an integral vector. We extend this result to rational vectors $b$ and show that the coefficients themselves are piecewise-defined polynomials. To this end, we use a theorem of McMullen on lattice points in Minkowski-sums of rational dilates of rational polytopes and take a closer look at the…
We study the number of lattice points in integer dilates of the rational polytope $P = (x_1,...,x_n) \in \R_{\geq 0}^n : \sum_{k=1}^n x_k a_k \leq 1$, where $a_1,...,a_n$ are positive integers. This polytope is closely related to the linear Diophantine problem of Frobenius: given relatively prime positive integers $a_1,...,a_n$, find the largest value of t (the Frobenius number) such that $m_1 a_1 + ... + m_n a_n = t$ has no solution in positive integers $m_1,...,m_n$. This is equivalent to the problem of finding the largest dilate tP such that the facet $\sum_{k=1}^n x_k a_k = t$ contains no …
We show how to compute the Ehrhart polynomial of the free sum of two lattice polytopes containing the origin $P$ and $Q$ in terms of the enumerative combinatorics of $P$ and $Q$. This generalizes work of Beck, Jayawant, McAllister, and Braun, and follows from the observation that the weighted $h^*$-polynomial is multiplicative with respect to the free sum. We deduce that given a lattice polytope $P$ containing the origin, the problem of computing the number of lattice points in all rational dilates of $P$ is equivalent to the problem of computing the number of lattice points in all integer dil…
We prove that the problem of minimizing the number of integer points inparallel translations of a rational convex polytope in $\mathbb{R}^6$ is NP-hard. We apply this result to show that given a rational convex polytope $P \subset \mathbb{R}^6$, finding the largest integer $t$ s.t. the expansion $tP$ contains fewer than $k$ integer points is also NP-hard. We conclude that the Ehrhart quasi-polynomials of rational polytopes can have arbitrary fluctuations.
Padberg introduced a geometric notion of ranks for (mixed) integer rational polyhedrons and conjectured that the geometric rank of the matching polytope is one. In this work, we prove that this conjecture is true.
We call complex quasifold of dimension k a space that is locally isomorphic to the quotient of an open subset of the space C^k by the holomorphic action of a discrete group; the analogue of a complex torus in this setting is called a complex quasitorus. We associate to each simple polytope, rational or not, a family of complex quasifolds having same dimension as the polytope, each containing a dense open orbit for the action of a suitable complex quasitorus. We show that each of these spaces M is diffeomorphic to one of the symplectic quasifolds defined in http://arXiv.org/abs/math:SG/9904179,…
We study the problem of covering R^d by overlapping translates of a convex body P, such that almost every point of R^d is covered exactly k times. Such a covering of Euclidean space by translations is called a k-tiling. The investigation of tilings (i.e. 1-tilings in this context) by translations began with the work of Fedorov and Minkowski. Here we extend the investigations of Minkowski to k-tilings by proving that if a convex body k-tiles R^d by translations, then it is centrally symmetric, and its facets are also centrally symmetric. These are the analogues of Minkowski's conditions for 1-t…
The aim of this article is to show the existence, and also give an explicit construction, of infinite sets of orthogonal exponentials for certain families of convex polytopes which include simple-rational polytopes and also non simple polytopes which satisfy other nontrivial conditions. We also show that by considering weight functions one can construct infinite sets of orthogonal exponentials with a positive density by considering orthogonal projections of affine transformations of hypercubes (i.e., zonotopes).
If P is a rational polytope in R^d, then $i_P(t):=#(tP\cap Z^d)$ is a quasi-polynomial in t, called the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial of P. A period of i_P(t) is D(P), the smallest positive integer D such that D*P has integral vertices. Often, D(P) is the minimum period of i_P(t), but, in several interesting examples, the minimum period is smaller. We prove that, for fixed d, there is a polynomial time algorithm which, given a rational polytope P in R^d and an integer n, decides whether n is a period of i_P(t). In particular, there is a polynomial time algorithm to decide whether i_P(t) is a polyno…
The Fine interior $Δ^{\text{FI}}$ of a $d$-dimensional lattice polytope $Δ$ is a rational subpolytope of $Δ$ which is important for constructing minimal birational models of non-degenerate hypersurfaces defined by Laurent polynomials with Newton polytope $Δ$. This paper presents some computational results on the Fine interior of all $674,\!688$ three-dimensional canonical Fano polytopes.
The uniform probability measure on a convex polytope induces piecewise polynomial densities on its projections. For a fixed combinatorial type of simplicial polytopes, the moments of these measures are rational functions in the vertex coordinates. We study projective varieties that are parametrized by finite collections of such rational functions. Our focus lies on determining the prime ideals of these moment varieties. Special cases include Hankel determinantal ideals for polytopal splines on line segments, and the relations among multisymmetric functions given by the cumulants of a simplex. …
We propose a refined but natural notion of toric degenerations that respect a given embedding and show that within this framework a Gorenstein Fano variety can only be degenerated to a Gorenstein Fano toric variety if it is embedded via its anticanonical embedding. This also gives a precise criterion for reflexive polytopes to appear, which might be required for applications in mirror symmetry. For the proof of this statement we will study polytopes whose polar dual is a lattice polytope. As a byproduct we generalize a connection between the number of lattice points in a rational convex polyto…