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-type reciprocity law. This generalizes the classical reciprocity law for rational polytopes. In the present paper we complete the picture by extending this result to general rational polytopes. As a corollary, we also generalize a reciprocity theorem of Stanley.
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.
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 te…
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.
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…
In this expository article we give an introduction to Ehrhart theory, i.e., the theory of integer points in polyhedra, and take a tour through its applications in enumerative combinatorics. Topics include geometric modeling in combinatorics, Ehrhart's method for proving that a couting function is a polynomial, the connection between polyhedral cones, rational functions and quasisymmetric functions, methods for bounding coefficients, combinatorial reciprocity theorems, algorithms for counting integer points in polyhedra and computing rational function representations, as well as visualizations …
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 …
Colgate University（科尔盖特大学）；University of California, Davis（加州大学戴维斯分校）；University of Texas Rio Grande Valley（德克萨斯大学里奥格兰德河谷分校）；KTH Royal Institute of Technology（皇家理工学院）；York University（约克大学）；Georgia Institute of Technology（佐治亚理工学院）
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…
We introduce the notion of a weighted $δ$-vector of a lattice polytope. Although the definition is motivated by motivic integration, we study weighted $δ$-vectors from a combinatorial perspective. We present a version of Ehrhart Reciprocity and prove a change of variables formula. We deduce a new geometric interpretation of the coefficients of the Ehrhart $δ$-vector. More specifically, they are sums of dimensions of orbifold cohomology groups of a toric stack.
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…
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.
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…
We study the Ehrhart theory of quadratic irrational polytopes that undergo vector dilations. That is, for a given polytope with vertices in $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{D})$, and a different dilation factor for each facet, we show that the leading term of the lattice-point count behaves similar to an Ehrhart polynomial, generalizing previous work of Borda on scalar dilations of quadratic irrational polytopes. As a result, a form of the Ehrhart-Macdonald reciprocity law is obtained for the leading term.
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…
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 $V$ be a real vector space of dimension $n$ and let $M\subset V$ be a lattice. Let $P\subset V$ be an $n$-dimensional polytope with vertices in $M$, and let $φ\colon V\rightarrow \CC $ be a homogeneous polynomial function of degree $d$ (i.e., an element of $\Sym^{d} (V^{*})$). For $q\in \ZZ_{>0}$ and any face $F$ of $P$, let $D_{φ,F} (q)$ be the sum of $φ$ over the lattice points in the dilate $qF$. We define a generating function $G_φ(q,y) \in \QQ [q] [y]$ packaging together the various $D_{φ,F} (q)$, and show that it satisfies a functional equation that simultaneously generalizes Ehrhart…
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…
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…
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 …
Let a polyhedron $P$ be defined by one of the following ways: (i) $P = \{x \in R^n \colon A x \leq b\}$, where $A \in Z^{(n+k) \times n}$, $b \in Z^{(n+k)}$ and $rank\, A = n$; (ii) $P = \{x \in R_+^n \colon A x = b\}$, where $A \in Z^{k \times n}$, $b \in Z^{k}$ and $rank\, A = k$. And let all rank order minors of $A$ be bounded by $Δ$ in absolute values. We show that the short rational generating function for the power series $$ \sum\limits_{m \in P \cap Z^n} x^m $$ can be computed with the arithmetic complexity $ O\left(T_{SNF}(d) \cdot d^{k} \cdot d^{\log_2 Δ}\right), $ where $k$ and $Δ$ a…
