Combinatorial types of bicyclic polytopes (Q427826)

The cyclic polytope that is formed as the convex hull of a finite set of points on the moment curve plays an important role in the study of polytopes. A natural analog of this is the \textit{bicyclic polytope}, a 4-polytope formed as the convex hull of points \((\cos(2\pi x), \sin(2\pi x), \cos(2\pi y), \sin(2\pi y))\) where \((x,y)\in L\), with \(L\) a given lattice of rank \(2\) that contains \({\mathbb Z}^2\). The bicyclic polytopes are highly symmetric and were studied by \textit{Z. Smilansky} [Isr. J. Math. 70, No. 1, 82--92 (1990; Zbl 0713.52006)]. In this paper, Smilansky's study is, in some sense, finalized; the facial structure of bicyclic polytopes is presented in a complete and an explicit way in terms of four integer parameters that stem from the lattice \(L\). The main results are as follows. (i) The bicyclic polytopes and their vertex figures are completely classified up to combinatorial equivalence. If two bicyclic polytopes are equivalent, then they are in fact congruent. (ii) The \(f\)-vectors of bicyclic polytopes and of their vertex figures are also determined.