Given an oriented graph G, the modular flow polynomial counts the number of nowhere-zero Z_k-flows of G. We give a description of the modular flow polynomial in terms of (open) Ehrhart polynomials of lattice polytopes. Using Ehrhart-Macdonald reciprocity we give a combinatorial interpretation for the values of the modular flow polynomial at negative arguments which answers a question of Beck and Zaslavsky (2006). Our construction extends to Z_l-tensions and we recover Stanley's reciprocity theorem for the chromatic polynomial. Combining the combinatorial reciprocity statements for flows and tensions, we give an enumerative interpretation for positive evaluations of the Tutte polynomial of G.
We prove that the Ehrhart polynomial of a zonotope is a specialization of the multiplicity Tutte polynomial. We derive some formulae for the volume and the number of integer points of the zonotope.
For a convex polytope P with rational vertices, we count the number of integer points in integral dilates of P and its interior. The Ehrhart-Macdonald reciprocity law gives an intimate relation between these two counting functions. A similar counting function and reciprocity law exists for the sum of all solid angles at integer points in dilates of P. We derive a unifying generalization of these reciprocity theorems which follows in a natural way from Brion's Theorem on conic decompositions of polytopes.
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-…
In the present paper, we introduce a multibasic extension of the Ehrhart theory. We give a multibasic extension of Ehrhart polynomials and Ehrhart series. We also show that an analogue of Ehrhart reciprocity holds for multibasic Ehrhart polynomials.
We obtain a new motivated proof of the reciprocity law for Dedekind sums by computing the constant coefficient of the Ehrhart polynomial for a rectangular triangle in two ways. On the one hand, the constant term is the Euler characteristic, and on the other hand it is given by a cotangent Laurent expansion.
We recover the Tutte polynomial of a matroid, up to change of coordinates, from an Ehrhart-style polynomial counting lattice points in the Minkowski sum of its base polytope and scalings of simplices. Our polynomial has coefficients of alternating sign with a combinatorial interpretation closely tied to the Dawson partition. Our definition extends in a straightforward way to polymatroids, and in this setting our polynomial has Kálmán's internal and external activity polynomials as its univariate specialisations.
We give a new proof for a theorem of Ehrhart regarding the quasi-polynomiality of the function that counts the number of integer points in the integral dilates of a rational polytope. The proof involves a geometric bijection, inclusion-exclusion, and recurrence relations, and we also prove Ehrhart reciprocity using these methods.
Generalized permutahedra are a class of polytopes with many interesting combinatorial subclasses. We introduce pruned inside-out polytopes, a generalization of inside-out polytopes introduced by Beck--Zaslavsky (2006), which have many applications such as recovering the famous reciprocity result for graph colorings by Stanley. We study the integer point count of pruned inside-out polytopes by applying classical Ehrhart polynomials and Ehrhart-Macdonald reciprocity. This yields a geometric perspective on and a generalization of a combinatorial reciprocity theorem for generalized permutahedra by…
Employing two models, we show that various counting functions of a random variable defined by restriction or contraction of a ranked set with multiplicity (e.g., classical and arithmetic matroids) have expectations given by the corresponding multivariate Tutte polynomial. The first model is based on a generalization of a convolution formula of Kung (2010), extending from matroids to ranked sets with multiplicities. This model enables us to compute the expectations of many familiar polynomials, such as the chromatic, flow and Ehrhart polynomials, generalizing the classical results of Welsh (199…
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 …
Hypersimplices are well-studied objects in combinatorics, optimization, and representation theory. For each hypersimplex, we define a new family of subpolytopes, called r-stable hypersimplices, and show that a well-known regular unimodular triangulation of the hypersimplex restricts to a triangulation of each r-stable hypersimplex. For the case of the second hypersimplex defined by the two-element subsets of an n-set, we provide a shelling of this triangulation that sequentially shells each r-stable sub-hypersimplex. In this case, we utilize the shelling to compute the Ehrhart h*-polynomials o…
We introduce a modular (integral) complementary polynomial $κ(G;x,y)$ ($κ_{\mathbbm z}(G;x,y)$) of two variables of a graph $G$ by counting the number of modular (integral) complementary tension-flows (CTF) of $G$ with an orientation $ε$. We study these polynomials by further introducing a cut-Eulerian equivalence relation on orientations and geometric structures such as the complementary open lattice polyhedron $Δ_\textsc{ctf}(G,ε)$, the complementary open 0-1 polytope $Δ^+_\textsc{ctf}(G,ε)$, and the complementary open lattice polytopes $Δ^ρ_\textsc{ctf}(G,ε)$ with respect to orientations $ρ…
We give a short, self-contained proof of Stanley's reciprocity theorem for a rational cone K \subset R^d. Namely, let sigma_K (x) = sum_{m \in K \cap Z^d} x^m. Then sigma_K (x) and sigma_int(K) (x) are rational functions which satisfy the identity sigma_K (1/x) = (-1)^d sigma_int(K) (x). A corollary of Stanley's theorem is the Ehrhart-Macdonald reciprocity theorem for the lattice-point enumerator of rational polytopes. A distinguishing feature of our proof is that it uses neither the shelling of a polyhedron nor the concept of finite additive measures. The proof follows from elementary techniq…
Let G be a connected bipartite graph with color classes E and V and root polytope Q. Regarding the hypergraph (V,E) induced by G, we prove that its interior polynomial is equivalent to the Ehrhart polynomial of Q, which in turn is equivalent to the h-vector of any triangulation of Q. It follows that the interior polynomials of (V,E) and its transpose (E,V) agree. When G is a complete bipartite graph, our result recovers a well known hypergeometric identity due to Saalschütz. It also implies that certain extremal coefficients in the Homfly polynomial of a special alternating link can be read of…
The Ehrhart polynomial and the reciprocity theorems by Ehrhart \& Macdonald are extended to tensor valuations on lattice polytopes. A complete classification is established of tensor valuations of rank up to eight that are equivariant with respect to the special linear group over the integers and translation covariant. Every such valuation is a linear combination of the Ehrhart tensors which is shown to no longer hold true for rank nine.
A common generalization for the chromatic polynomial and the flow polynomial of a graph $G$ is the Tutte polynomial $T(G;x,y)$. The combinatorial meaning for the coefficients of $T$ was discovered by Tutte at the beginning of its definition. However, for a long time the combinatorial meaning for the values of $T$ is missing, except for a few values such as $T(G;i,j)$, where $1\leq i,j\leq 2$, until recently for $T(G;1,0)$ and $T(G;0,1)$. In this third one of a series of papers, we introduce product valuations, cartesian product arrangements, and multivariable characteristic polynomials, and ap…
We study modular and integral flow polynomials of graphs by means of subgroup arrangements and lattice polytopes. We introduce an Eulerian equivalence relation on orientations, flow arrangements, and flow polytopes; and we apply the theory of Ehrhart polynomials to obtain properties of modular and integral flow polynomials. The emphasis is on the geometrical treatment through subgroup arrangements and Ehrhart polynomials. Such viewpoint leads to a reciprocity law for the modular flow polynomial, which gives rise to an interpretation on the values of the modular flow polynomial at negative inte…
We use the residue theorem to derive an expression for the number of lattice oints in a dilated n-dimensional tetrahedron with vertices at lattice points on each coordinate axis and the origin. This expression is known as the Ehrhart polynomial. We show that it is a polynomial in t, where t is the integral dilation parameter. We prove the Ehrhart-Macdonald reciprocity law for these tetrahedra, relating the Ehrhart polynomials of the interior and the closure of the tetrahedra. To illustrate our method, we compute the Ehrhart coefficient for codimension 2. Finally, we show how our ideas can be u…
This is the first one of a series of papers on association of orientations, lattice polytopes, and abelian group arrangements to graphs. The purpose is to interpret the integral and modular tension polynomials of graphs at zero and negative integers. The whole exposition is put under the framework of subgroup arrangements and the application of Ehrhart polynomials. Such viewpoint leads to the following main results of the paper: (i) the reciprocity law for integral tension polynomials; (ii) the reciprocity law for modular tension polynomials; and (iii) a new interpretation for the value of the…
Let $M$ be a regular matroid. The Jacobian group ${\rm Jac}(M)$ of $M$ is a finite abelian group whose cardinality is equal to the number of bases of $M$. This group generalizes the definition of the Jacobian group (also known as the critical group or sandpile group) ${\rm Jac}(G)$ of a graph $G$ (in which case bases of the corresponding regular matroid are spanning trees of $G$). There are many explicit combinatorial bijections in the literature between the Jacobian group of a graph ${\rm Jac}(G)$ and spanning trees. However, most of the known bijections use vertices of $G$ in some essential …
We study higher-dimensional analogs of the Dedekind-Carlitz polynomials c(u,v;a,b) := sum_{k=1..b-1} u^[ka/b] v^(k-1), where u and v are indeterminates and a and b are positive integers. Carlitz proved that these polynomials satisfy the reciprocity law (v-1) c(u,v;a,b) + (u-1) c(v,u;b,a) = u^(a-1) v^(b-1) - 1, from which one easily deduces many classical reciprocity theorems for the Dedekind sum and its generalizations. We illustrate that Dedekind-Carlitz polynomials appear naturally in generating functions of rational cones and use this fact to give geometric proofs of the Carlitz reciprocity…
