Mixed Ehrhart polynomials (Q510316)

Summary: For lattice polytopes \(P_1,\ldots, P_k \subseteq \mathbb{R}^d\), \textit{F. Bihan} [Discrete Comput. Geom. 55, No. 4, 907--933 (2016; Zbl 1375.14210)] introduced the discrete mixed volume \(\mathrm{DMV}(P_1,\ldots,P_k)\) in analogy to the classical mixed volume. In this note we study the associated mixed Ehrhart polynomial \(\mathrm{ME}_{P_1, \ldots,P_k}(n) = \mathrm{DMV}(nP_1, \ldots, nP_k)\). We provide a characterization of all mixed Ehrhart coefficients in terms of the classical multivariate Ehrhart polynomial. Bihan [loc. cit.] showed that the discrete mixed volume is always non-negative. Our investigations yield simpler proofs for certain special cases. We also introduce and study the associated \textit{mixed \(h^*\)-vector}. We show that for large enough dilates \(r P_1, \ldots, rP_k\) the corresponding \textit{mixed \(h^*\)-polynomial} has only real roots and as a consequence~ the mixed \(h^*\)-vector becomes non-negative.