Given a lattice polytope $P$ (with underlying lattice $\lo$), the universal counting function $\uu_P(\lo')=|P\cap \lo'|$ is defined on all lattices $\lo'$ containing $\lo$. Motivated by questions concerning lattice polytopes and the Ehrhart polynomial, we study the equation $\uu_P=\uu_Q$.
We present a number of complexity results concerning the problem of counting vertices of an integral polytope defined by a system of linear inequalities. The focus is on polytopes with small integer vertices, particularly 0/1 polytopes and half-integral polytopes.
The Baldoni--Vergne volume and Ehrhart polynomial formulas for flow polytopes are significant in at least two ways. On one hand, these formulas are in terms of Kostant partition functions, connecting flow polytopes to this classical vector partition function fundamental in representation theory. On the other hand the Ehrhart polynomials can be read off from the volume functions of flow polytopes. The latter is remarkable since the leading term of the Ehrhart polynomial of an integer polytope is its volume! Baldoni and Vergne proved these formulas via residues. To reveal the geometry of these f…
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 investigate the complexity of counting the number of integer points in tropical polytopes, and the complexity of calculating their volume. We study the tropical analogue of the outer parallel body and establish bounds for its volume. We deduce that there is no approximation algorithm of factor $α=2^{\text{poly}(m,n)}$ for the volume of a tropical polytope given by $n$ vertices in a space of dimension $m$, unless P$=$NP. Neither is there such an approximation algorithm for counting the number of integer points in tropical polytopes described by vertices. If follows that approximating these v…
In this paper, we address the problem of counting integer points in a rational polytope described by $P(y) = \{ x \in \mathbb{R}^m \colon Ax = y, x \geq 0\}$, where $A$ is an $n \times m$ integer matrix and $y$ is an $n$-dimensional integer vector. We study the Z-transformation approach initiated by Brion-Vergne, Beck, and Lasserre-Zeron from the numerical analysis point of view, and obtain a new algorithm on this problem: If $A$ is nonnegative, then the number of integer points in $P(y)$ can be computed in $O(\mathrm{poly} (n,m, \|y\|_\infty) (\|y\|_\infty + 1)^n)$ time and $O(\mathrm{poly} (…
A lattice polytope is "free" (or "empty") if its vertices are the only lattice points it contains. In the context of valuation theory, Klain (1999) proposed to study the functions $α_i(P;n)$ that count the number of free polytopes in $nP$ with $i$ vertices. For $i=1$, this is the famous Ehrhart polynomial. For $i > 3$, the computation is likely impossible and for $i=2,3$ computationally challenging. In this paper, we develop a theory of coprime Ehrhart functions, that count lattice points with relatively prime coordinates, and use it to compute $α_2(P;n)$ for unimodular simplices. We show that…
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 augment the list of finite universal locally toroidal regular polytopes of type {3,3,4,3,3} due to P.McMullen and E.Schulte, adding as well as removing entries. This disproves a related long-standing conjecture. Our new universal polytope is related to a well-known Y-shaped presentation for the sporadic simple group $Fi_{22}$, and admits $S_4\times O_8^+(2){:}S_3$ as the automorphism group. We also discuss further extensions of its quotients in the context of Y-shaped presentations. As well, we note that two known examples of finite universal polytopes of type {3,3,4,3,3} are related to Y-s…
For a hypergraphic polytope there is a weighted quasisymmetric function which enumerates positive integer points in its normal fan and determines its f-polynomial. This quasisymmetric function invariant of hypergraphs extends the Stanley chromatic symmetric function of simple graphs. We consider a certain combinatorial Hopf algebra of hypergraphs and show that universal morphism to quasisymmetric functions coincides with this enumerator function.
In this paper, we show the existence of universal inequalities for the $h^*$-vector of a lattice polytope P, that is, we show that there are relations among the coefficients of the $h^*$-polynomial which are independent of both the dimension and the degree of P. More precisely, we prove that the coefficients $h^*_1$ and $h^*_2$ of the $h^*$-vector $(h^*_0,h^*_1,\ldots,h^*_d)$ of a lattice polytope of any degree satisfy Scott's inequality if $h^*_3=0$.
In a nutshell, we show that polynomials and nested polytopes are topological, algebraic and algorithmically equivalent. Given two polytops $A\subseteq B$ and a number $k$, the Nested Polytope Problem (NPP) asks, if there exists a polytope $X$ on $k$ vertices such that $A\subseteq X \subseteq B$. The polytope $A$ is given by a set of vertices and the polytope $B$ is given by the defining hyperplanes. We show a universality theorem for NPP. Given an instance $I$ of the NPP, we define the solutions set of $I$ as $$ V'(I) = \{(x_1,\ldots,x_k)\in \mathbb{R}^{k\cdot n} : A\subseteq \text{conv}(x_1,\…
The Tutte polynomial for matroids is not directly applicable to polymatroids. For instance, deletion-contraction properties do not hold. We construct a polynomial for polymatroids which behaves similarly to the Tutte polynomial of a matroid, and in fact contains the same information as the Tutte polynomial when we restrict to matroids. This polynomial is constructed using lattice point counts in the Minkowski sum of the base polytope of a polymatroid and scaled copies of the standard simplex. We also show that, in the matroid case, our polynomial has coefficients of alternating sign, with a co…
Let a polyhedron $P$ be defined by one of the following ways: (i) $P = \{x \in R^n \colon A x \leq b\}$, where $A \in Z^{(n+k) \times n}$, $b \in Z^{(n+k)}$ and $rank\, A = n$; (ii) $P = \{x \in R_+^n \colon A x = b\}$, where $A \in Z^{k \times n}$, $b \in Z^{k}$ and $rank\, A = k$. And let all rank order minors of $A$ be bounded by $Δ$ in absolute values. We show that the short rational generating function for the power series $$ \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…
Bowdoin College（博多因学院）；University of Technology Nuremberg（纽伦堡工业大学）；London School of Economics and Political Science（伦敦政治经济学院）；Freie Universität Berlin（柏林自由大学）
A wide variety of problems in combinatorics and discrete optimization depend on counting the set $S$ of integer points in a polytope, or in some more general object constructed via discrete geometry and first-order logic. We take a tour through numerous problems of this type. In particular, we consider families of such sets $S_t$ depending on one or more integer parameters $t$, and analyze the behavior of the function $f(t)=|S_t|$. In the examples that we investigate, this function exhibits surprising polynomial-like behavior. We end with two broad theorems detailing settings where this polyno…
Motivated by questions of Mulmuley and Stanley we investigate quasi-polynomials arising in formulas for plethysm. We demonstrate, on the examples of $S^3(S^k)$ and $S^k(S^3)$, that these need not be counting functions of inhomogeneous polytopes of dimension equal to the degree of the quasi-polynomial. It follows that these functions are not, in general, counting functions of lattice points in any scaled convex bodies, even when restricted to single rays. Our results also apply to special rectangular Kronecker coefficients.
