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.
Ehrhart's famous theorem states that the number of integral points in a rational polytope is a quasi-polynomial in the integral dilation factor. We study the case of rational dilation factors and it turns out that the number of integral points can still be written as a rational quasi-polynomial. Furthermore the coefficients of this rational quasi-polynomial are piecewise polynomial functions and related to each other by derivation.
There is a simple formula for the Ehrhart polynomial of a cyclic polytope. The purpose of this paper is to show that the same formula holds for a more general class of polytopes, lattice-face polytopes. We develop a way of decomposing any d-dimensional simplex in general position into d! signed sets, each of which corresponds to a permutation in the symmetric group, and reduce the problem of counting lattice points in a polytope in general position to that of counting lattice points in these special signed sets. Applying this decomposition to a lattice-face simplex, we obtain signed sets with …
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 1976, P. R. Scott characterized the Ehrhart polynomials of convex integral polygons. We study the same question for Ehrhart polynomials and quasi-polynomials of *non*-integral convex polygons. Turning to the case in which the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial has nontrivial quasi-period, we determine the possible minimal periods of the coefficient functions of the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial of a rational polygon.
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.
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.
Gathering different results from singularity theory, geometry and combinatorics, we show that the spectrum at infinity of a tame Laurent polynomial counts lattice points in polytopes and we deduce an effective algorithm in order to compute the Ehrhart polynomial of a simplex containing the origin as an interior point.
A remarkable connection between the cohomology ring ${\rm H^{\ast}(Gr}(d, d+r),\Z)$ of the Grasssmannian ${\rm Gr}(d,d+r)$ and the lattice points of the dilation $rΔ_{d}$ of the standard d-simplex is investigated. The natural grading on the cohomology induces different gradings of the lattice points of $rΔ_{d}$. This leads to different refinements of the Ehrhart polynomial $L_{Δ_{d}}(r)$ of the standard $d$-simplex. We study two of these refinements which are defined by the weights $(1,1,\dots,1)$ and $(1,2,\dots, d)$. One of the refinements interprets the Poincaré polynomial ${\rm P(Gr}(d,d+r…
In 1976, P. R. Scott characterized the Ehrhart polynomials of convex integral polygons. We study the same question for Ehrhart polynomials and quasi-polynomials of \emph{non}-integral convex polygons. Define a \emph{pseudo-integral polygon}, or \emph{PIP}, to be a convex rational polygon whose Ehrhart quasi-polynomial is a polynomial. The numbers of lattice points on the interior and on the boundary of a PIP determine its Ehrhart polynomial. We show that, unlike the integral case, there exist PIPs with $b=1$ or $b=2$ boundary points and an arbitrary number $I \ge 1$ of interior points. However…
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.
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 …
In a recent paper, Cristofaro-Gardiner--Li--Stanley [CGLS15] constructed examples of irrational triangles whose Ehrhart functions (i.e. lattice-point count) are polynomials when restricted to positive integer dilation factors. This is very surprising because the Ehrhart functions of rational polygons are usually only quasi-polynomials. We demonstrate that most of their triangles can also be obtained by a simple cut-and-paste procedure that allows us to build new examples with more sides. Our examples might potentially have applications in the theory of symplectic embeddings.
Motivated by questions from Ehrhart theory, we present new results on discrete equidecomposability. Two rational polygons $P$ and $Q$ are said to be discretely equidecomposable if there exists a piecewise affine-unimodular bijection (equivalently, a piecewise affine-linear bijection that preserves the integer lattice $\mathbb{Z} \times \mathbb{Z}$) from $P$ to $Q$. In this paper, we primarily study a particular version of this notion which we call rational finite discrete equidecomposability. We construct triangles that are Ehrhart equivalent but not rationally finitely discretely equidecompos…
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 study a natural set of refinements of the Ehrhart series of a closed polytope, first considered by Chapoton. We compute the refined series in full generality for a simplex of dimension d, a cross-polytope of dimension d, respectively a hypercube of dimension d<4, using commutative algebra. We deduce summation formulae for products of q-integers with different arguments, generalizing a classical identity due to MacMahon and Carlitz. We also present a characterisation of a certain refined Eulerian polynomial in algebraic terms.
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…
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.
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 …
We study intermediate sums, interpolating between integrals and discrete sums, which were introduced by A. Barvinok [Computing the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial of a rational simplex, Math. Comp. 75 (2006), 1449--1466]. For a given semi-rational polytope P and a rational subspace L, we integrate a given polynomial function h over all lattice slices of the polytope P parallel to the subspace L and sum up the integrals. We first develop an algorithmic theory of parametric intermediate generating functions. Then we study the Ehrhart theory of these intermediate sums, that is, the dependence of the res…
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 …
This article concerns the computational problem of counting the lattice points inside convex polytopes, when each point must be counted with a weight associated to it. We describe an efficient algorithm for computing the highest degree coefficients of the weighted Ehrhart quasi-polynomial for a rational simple polytope in varying dimension, when the weights of the lattice points are given by a polynomial function h. Our technique is based on a refinement of an algorithm of A. Barvinok [Computing the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial of a rational simplex, Math. Comp. 75 (2006), pp. 1449--1466] in the u…
Recently, Chapoton found a $q$-analog of Ehrhart polynomials, which are polynomials in $x$ whose coefficients are rational functions in $q$. Chapoton conjectured the shape of the Newton polygon of the numerator of the $q$-Ehrhart polynomial of an order polytope. In this paper, we prove Chapoton's conjecture.
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 …
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.
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…
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.
Ehrhart theory is the study of sequences recording the number of integer points in non-negative integral dilates of rational polytopes. For a given lattice polytope, this sequence is encoded in a finite vector called the Ehrhart $h^*$-vector. Ehrhart $h^*$-vectors have connections to many areas of mathematics, including commutative algebra and enumerative combinatorics. In this survey we discuss what is known about unimodality for Ehrhart $h^*$-vectors and highlight open questions and problems.
Ehrhart's conjecture proposes a sharp upper bound on the volume of a convex body whose barycenter is its only interior lattice point. Recently, Berman and Berndtsson proved this conjecture for a class of rational polytopes including reflexive polytopes. In particular, they showed that the complex projective space has the maximal anticanonical degree among all toric Kaehler-Einstein Fano manifolds. In this note, we prove that projective space is the only such toric manifold with maximal degree by proving its corresponding convex-geometric statement. We also discuss a generalized version of Ehrh…
Let $P$ be a polytope with rational vertices. A classical theorem of Ehrhart states that the number of lattice points in the dilations $P(n) = nP$ is a quasi-polynomial in $n$. We generalize this theorem by allowing the vertices of P(n) to be arbitrary rational functions in $n$. In this case we prove that the number of lattice points in P(n) is a quasi-polynomial for $n$ sufficiently large. Our work was motivated by a conjecture of Ehrhart on the number of solutions to parametrized linear Diophantine equations whose coefficients are polynomials in $n$, and we explain how these two problems are…
Macdonald studied a discrete volume measure for a rational polytope $P$, called solid angle sum, that gives a natural discrete volume for $P$. We give a local formula for the codimension two quasi-coefficient of the solid angle sum of $P$. We also show how to recover the classical Ehrhart quasi-polynomial from the solid angle sum and in particular we find a similar local formula for the codimension one and codimension two quasi-coefficients. These local formulas are naturally valid for all positive real dilates of $P$. An interesting open question is to determine necessary and sufficient condi…
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.
University of Kentucky（肯塔基大学）；Pomona College（波莫纳学院）；Washington University in St. Louis（华盛顿大学圣路易斯分校）；University of California, Davis（加州大学戴维斯分校）；Harvey Mudd College（哈维穆德学院）
We express the generating function for lattice points in a rational polyhedral cone with a simplicial subdivision in terms of multivariate analogues of the h-polynomials of the subdivision and "local contributions" of the links of its nonunimodular faces. We also compute new examples of nonunimodal h^*-vectors of reflexive polytopes.
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.
Motivated by representation theory and geometry, we introduce and develop an equivariant generalization of Ehrhart theory, the study of lattice points in dilations of lattice polytopes. We prove representation-theoretic analogues of numerous classical results, and give applications to the Ehrhart theory of rational polytopes and centrally symmetric polytopes. We also recover a character formula of Procesi, Dolgachev, Lunts and Stembridge for the action of a Weyl group on the cohomology of a toric variety associated to a root system.
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 polytope P a simplex S with vertex set V(S) is called a special simplex if every facet of P contains all but exactly one vertex of S. For such polytopes P with face complex F(P) containing a special simplex the subcomplex F(P) / V(S) of all faces not containing vertices of S is the boundary of a polytope Q - the basis polytope of P. If additionally the dimension of the affine basis space of F(P) / V(S) equals dim(Q), we call P meek; otherwise we call P wild. We give a full combinatorial classification and techniques for geometric construction of the class of meek polytopes with special s…
A \emph{quasi-polynomial} is a function defined of the form $q(k) = c_d(k) k^d + c_{d-1}(k) k^{d-1} + ... + c_0(k)$, where $c_0, c_1, ..., c_d$ are periodic functions in $k \in \Z$. Prominent examples of quasi-polynomials appear in Ehrhart's theory as integer-point counting functions for rational polytopes, and McMullen gives upper bounds for the periods of the $c_j(k)$ for Ehrhart quasi-polynomials. For generic polytopes, McMullen's bounds seem to be sharp, but sometimes smaller periods exist. We prove that the second leading coefficient of an Ehrhart quasi-polynomial always has maximal expec…
We continue our study of intermediate sums over polyhedra, interpolating between integrals and discrete sums, which were introduced by A. Barvinok [Computing the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial of a rational simplex, Math. Comp. 75 (2006), 1449-1466]. By well-known decompositions, it is sufficient to consider the case of affine cones s+c, where s is an arbitrary real vertex and c is a rational polyhedral cone. For a given rational subspace L, we integrate a given polynomial function h over all lattice slices of the affine cone s + c parallel to the subspace L and sum up the integrals. We study these …
Ehrhart theory measures a polytope P discretely by counting the lattice points inside its dilates P, 2P, 3P, .... We compute the Ehrhart quasipolynomials of the standard Coxeter permutahedra for the classical Coxeter groups, expressing them in terms of the Lambert W function. A central tool is a description of the Ehrhart theory of a rational translate of an integer zonotope.
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.
The Ehrhart polynomial $L_P$ of an integral polytope $P$ counts the number of integer points in integral dilates of $P$. Ehrhart polynomials of polytopes are often described in terms of their Ehrhart $h^*$-vector (aka Ehrhart $δ$-vector), which is the vector of coefficients of $L_P$ with respect to a certain binomial basis and which coincides with the $h$-vector of a regular unimodular triangulation of $P$ (if one exists). One important result by Stanley about $h^*$-vectors of polytopes is that their entries are always non-negative. However, recent combinatorial applications of Ehrhart theory …
