There exist as many index-$k$ sublattices of the hexagonal lattice up to isometry as there exist lattice triangles with normalized volume $k$ up to unimodular equivalence, which can be explained using orbifolds. In dimension 3, it was noted that the number of sublattices of the fcc and the bcc lattices and the number of lattice tetrahedra all seem to be the same. We provide a bijection between the sublattices of the coweight lattice $A^*_n$ and the $n$-dimensional lattice simplices. It explains, proves, and generalizes the observed coincidences to arbitrary dimension.
This paper presents new lower bounds for the lattice covering densities of simplices by studying the Degree-Diameter Problem for abelian Cayley digraphs. In particular, it proves that the density of any lattice covering of a tetrahedron is at least $25/18$ and the density of any lattice covering of a four-dimensional simplex is at least $343/264$.
In this paper, we will prove that given a lattice simplex with its $h^*$-polynomial $\sum_{i \geq 0}h_i^*t^i$, if $h_{k+1}^*=\cdots=h_{2k}^*=0$ holds, then there exists a lattice simplex of degree $k$ whose $h^*$-polynomial coincides with $\sum_{i=0}^k h_i^*t^i$. Moreover, we will present the examples showing that the condition $h_{k+1}^*=h_{k+2}^*=\cdots=h_{2k-1}^*=0$ is necessary.
We explore upper bounds on the covering radius of non-hollow lattice polytopes. In particular, we conjecture a general upper bound of $d/2$ in dimension $d$, achieved by the "standard terminal simplices" and direct sums of them. We prove this conjecture up to dimension three and show it to be equivalent to the conjecture of González-Merino \& Schymura (2017) that the $d$-th covering minimum of the standard terminal $n$-simplex equals $d/2$, for every $n>d$. We also show that these two conjectures would follow from a discrete analog for lattice simplices of Hadwiger's formula bounding the cover…
Motivated by the problem of bounding the number of rays of plane tropical curves we study the following question: Given $n\in\mathbb{N}$ and a unimodular $2$-simplex $Δ$ what is the maximal number of vertices a lattice polytope contained in $n\cdot Δ$ can have? We determine this number for an infinite subset of $\mathbb{N}$ by providing a family of vertex-maximal polytopes and give bounds for the other cases.
The Flatness theorem states that the maximum lattice width ${\rm Flt}(d)$ of a $d$-dimensional lattice-free convex set is finite. It is the key ingredient for Lenstra's algorithm for integer programming in fixed dimension, and much work has been done to obtain bounds on ${\rm Flt}(d)$. While most results have been concerned with upper bounds, only few techniques are known to obtain lower bounds. In fact, the previously best known lower bound ${\rm Flt}(d) \ge 1.138d$ arises from direct sums of a $3$-dimensional lattice-free simplex. In this work, we establish the lower bound ${\rm Flt}(d) \ge …
A lattice $d$-simplex is the convex hull of $d+1$ affinely independent integer points in ${\mathbb R}^d$. It is called empty if it contains no lattice point apart of its $d+1$ vertices. The classification of empty $3$-simplices is known since 1964 (White), based on the fact that they all have width one. But for dimension $4$ no complete classification is known. Haase and Ziegler (2000) enumerated all empty $4$-simplices up to determinant 1000 and based on their results conjectured that after determinant $179$ all empty $4$-simplices have width one or two. We prove this conjecture as follows: -…
We investigate multi-graded Gorenstein semigroup algebras associated with an infinite family of reflexive lattice simplices. For each of these algebras, we prove that their multigraded Poincaré series is rational. Our method of proof is to produce for each algebra an explicit minimal free resolution of the ground field, in which the resolution reflects the recursive structure encoded in the denominator of the finely-graded Poincaré series. Using this resolution, we show that these algebras are not Koszul, and therefore rationality is non-trivial. Our results demonstrate how interactions betwee…
An empty simplex is a lattice simplex with only its vertices as lattice points. Their classification in dimension three was completed by White in 1964. In dimension four, the same task was started in 1988 by Mori, Morrison, and Morrison, with their motivation coming from the close relationship between empty simplices and terminal quotient singularities. They conjectured a classification of empty simplices of prime volume, modulo finitely many exceptions. Their conjecture was proved by Sankaran (1990) with a simplified proof by Bober (2009). The same classification was claimed by Barile et al. …
In 1982, Zaks, Perles and Wills discovered a d-dimensional lattice simplex S_{d,k} with k interior lattice points, whose volume is linear in k and doubly exponential in the dimension d. It is conjectured that, for all d \ge 3 and k \ge 1, the simplex S_{d,k} is a volume maximizer in the family P^d(k) of all d-dimensional lattice polytopes with k interior lattice points. To obtain a partial confirmation of this conjecture, one can try to verify it for a subfamily of P^d(k) that naturally contains S_{d,k} as one of the members. Currently, one does not even know whether S_{d,k} is optimal within …
The number of lattice points $\left| tP \cap \mathbb{Z}^d \right|$, as a function of the real variable $t>1$ is studied, where $P \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ belongs to a special class of algebraic cross-polytopes and simplices. It is shown that the number of lattice points can be approximated by an explicitly given polynomial of $t$ depending only on $P$. The error term is related to a simultaneous Diophantine approximation problem for algebraic numbers, as in Schmidt's theorem. The main ingredients of the proof are a Poisson summation formula for general algebraic polytopes, and a representation o…
We show that the Chow covectors of a linkage matching field define a bijection between certain degree vectors and lattice points, and we demonstrate how one can recover the linkage matching field from this bijection. This resolves two open questions from Sturmfels and Zelevinsky (1993) on linkage matching fields. For this, we give an explicit construction that associates a bipartite incidence graph of an ordered partition of a common set to each lattice point in a dilated simplex. Given a triangulation of a product of two simplices encoded by a set of spanning trees on a bipartite node set, we…
For each integer partition $\mathbf{q}$ with $d$ parts, we denote by $Δ_{(1,\mathbf{q})}$ the lattice simplex obtained as the convex hull in $\mathbb{R}^d$ of the standard basis vectors along with the vector $-\mathbf{q}$. For $\mathbf{q}$ with two distinct parts such that $Δ_{(1,\mathbf{q})}$ is reflexive and has the integer decomposition property, we establish a characterization of the lattice points contained in $Δ_{(1,\mathbf{q})}$. We then construct a Gröbner basis with a squarefree initial ideal of the toric ideal defined by these simplices. This establishes the existence of a regular un…
A long-standing open conjecture in combinatorics asserts that a Gorenstein lattice polytope with the integer decomposition property (IDP) has a unimodal (Ehrhart) $h^\ast$-polynomial. This conjecture can be viewed as a strengthening of a previously disproved conjecture which stated that any Gorenstein lattice polytope has a unimodal $h^\ast$-polynomial. The first counterexamples to unimodality for Gorenstein lattice polytopes were given in even dimensions greater than five by Musta{ţ}{ǎ} and Payne, and this was extended to all dimensions greater than five by Payne. While there exist numerous e…
Consider a class of simplices defined by systems $A x \leq b$ of linear inequalities with $Δ$-modular matrices. A matrix is called $Δ$-modular, if all its rank-order sub-determinants are bounded by $Δ$ in an absolute value. In our work we call a simplex $Δ$-modular, if it can be defined by a system $A x \leq b$ with a $Δ$-modular matrix $A$. And we call a simplex empty, if it contains no points with integer coordinates. In literature, a simplex is called lattice-simplex, if all its vertices have integer coordinates. And a lattice-simplex called empty, if it contains no points with integer coor…
Reflexive lattice polytopes play a key role in combinatorics, algebraic geometry, physics, and other areas. One important class of lattice polytopes are lattice simplices defining weighted projective spaces. We investigate the question of when a reflexive weighted projective space simplex has the integer decomposition property. We provide a complete classification of reflexive weighted projective space simplices having the integer decomposition property for the case when there are at most three distinct non-unit weights, and conjecture a general classification for an arbitrary number of distin…
There is currently a growing interest in understanding which lattice simplices have unimodal local $h^\ast$-polynomials (sometimes called box polynomials); specifically in light of their potential applications to unimodality questions for Ehrhart $h^\ast$-polynomials. In this note, we compute a general form for the local $h^\ast$-polynomial of a well-studied family of lattice simplices whose associated toric varieties are weighted projective spaces. We then apply this formula to prove that certain such lattice simplices, whose combinatorics are naturally encoded using common systems of numerat…
To each lattice simplex $Δ$ we associate a poset encoding the additive structure of lattice points in the fundamental parallelepiped for $Δ$. When this poset is an antichain, we say $Δ$ is antichain. To each partition $λ$ of $n$, we associate a lattice simplex $Δ_λ$ having one unimodular facet, and we investigate their associated posets. We give a number-theoretic characterization of the relations in these posets, as well as a simplified characterization in the case where each part of $λ$ is relatively prime to $n-1$. We use these characterizations to experimentally study $Δ_λ$ for all partiti…
Many homogeneous polynomials that arise in the study of sums of squares and Hilbert's 17th problem come from monomial substitutions into the arithmetic-geometric inequality. In 1989, the second author gave a necessary and sufficient condition for such a form to have a representation as a sum of squares of forms (Math. Ann., (283), 431--464), involving the arrangement of lattice points in the simplex whose vertices were the $n$-tuples of the exponents used in the substitution. Further, a claim was made, and not proven, that sufficiently large dilations of any such simplex will also satisfy this…
Maximal mediated sets (MMS), introduced by Reznick, are distinguished subsets of lattice points in integral polytopes with even vertices. MMS of Newton polytopes of AGI-forms and nonnegative circuit polynomials determine whether these polynomials are sums of squares. In this article, we take initial steps in classifying MMS both theoretically and practically. Theoretically, we show that MMS of simplices are isomorphic if and only if the simplices generate the same lattice up to permutations. Furthermore, we generalize a result of Iliman and the third author. Practically, we fully characterize …
We construct a hollow lattice polytope (resp. a hollow lattice simplex) of dimension $14$ (resp.$~404$) and of width $15$ (resp.$~408$). They are the first known hollow lattice polytopes of width larger than dimension. We also construct a hollow (non-lattice) tetrahedron of width $2+\sqrt2$ and conjecture that this is the maximum width among $3$-dimensional hollow convex bodies. We show that the maximum lattice width grows (at least) additively with $d$. In particular, the constructions above imply the existence of hollow lattice polytopes (resp. hollow simplices) of arbitrarily large dimensio…
We prove that in each dimension $d$ there is a constant $w^\infty(d)\in \mathbb{N}$ such that for every $n\in \mathbb{N}$ all but finitely many $d$-polytopes with $n$ lattice points have width at most $w^\infty(d)$. We call $w^\infty(d)$ the finiteness threshold width and show that $d-2 \le w^\infty(d)\le O^*\left( d^{4/3}\right)$. Blanco and Santos determined the value $w^\infty(3)=1$. Here, we establish $w^\infty(4)=2$. This implies, in particular, that there are only finitely many empty $4$-simplices of width larger than two. The main tool in our proofs is the study of $d$-dimensional lifts…
In 1997 Oda conjectured that every smooth lattice polytope has the integer decomposition property. We prove Oda's conjecture for centrally symmetric $3$-dimensional polytopes, by showing they are covered by lattice parallelepipeds and unimodular simplices.
A well known result by Lagarias and Ziegler states that there are finitely many equivalence classes of d-dimensional lattice polytopes having volume at most K, for fixed constants d and K. We describe an algorithm for the complete enumeration of such equivalence classes for arbitrary constants d and K. The algorithm, which gives another proof of the finiteness result, is implemented for small values of K, up to dimension six. The resulting database contains and extends several existing ones, and has been used to correct mistakes in other classifications. When specialized to three-dimensional s…
