Enriched chain polytopes

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Abstract: Stanley introduced a lattice polytope mathcalCP arising from a finite poset P, which is called the chain polytope of P. The geometric structure of mathcalCP has good relations with the combinatorial structure of P. In particular, the Ehrhart polynomial of mathcalCP is given by the order polynomial of P. In the present paper, associated to P, we introduce a lattice polytope mathcalEP, which is called the enriched chain polytope of P, and investigate geometric and combinatorial properties of this polytope. By virtue of the algebraic technique on Gr"{o}bner bases, we see that mathcalEP is a reflexive polytope with a flag regular unimodular triangulation. Moreover, the h∗-polynomial of mathcalEP is equal to the h-polynomial of a flag triangulation of a sphere. On the other hand, by showing that the Ehrhart polynomial of mathcalEP coincides with the left enriched order polynomial of P, it follows from works of Stembridge and Petersen that the h∗-polynomial of mathcalEP is gamma-positive. Stronger, we prove that the gamma-polynomial of mathcalEP is equal to the f-polynomial of a flag simplicial complex.


A lattice polytope \(\mathscr{P}\subset \mathbb{R}^d\) is a convex polytope whose all vertices have integer coordinates. The Ehrhart polynomial \(L_{\mathscr{P}(m)}\) of \(\mathscr{P}\) is defined as \[ L_{\mathscr{P}}(m)=|m\mathscr{P}\cap \mathbb{Z}^d|. \] The Ehrhart series \(Ehr_{\mathscr{P}}(m)\) of \(\mathscr{P}\) is the formal power series \[ Ehr_{\mathscr{P}}(x)=1+\sum_{k=1}^{\infty} L_{\mathscr{P}}(k)x^k. \] The \(h^*\)-polynomial \(h^*(\mathscr{P},x)\) of \(\mathscr{P}\) is defined as \[ h^*(\mathscr{P},x) = (1-x)^{n+1}\cdot Ehr_{\mathscr{P}}(x). \] Given a poset \(P=[n]\), a chain polytope \(\mathscr{C}_P\) of \(P\) is the convex hull of \[ \{\mathbf{e}_{i_1}+ \cdots +\mathbf{e}_{i_k} : \{i_1,\dots, i_k\} \text{ is an antichain of } P\}, \] where \(\mathbf{e}_i\) is the \(i\)-th unit coordinate vector of \(\mathbb{R}^n\). There is a close interplay between the combinatorial structure of \(P\) and geometric structure of \(\mathscr{C}_P\). In this paper, the authors introduce the enriched chain polytope \(\mathscr{E}_P\) of poset \(P\) as the convex hull of \[ \{\pm \mathbf{e}_{i_1}\pm \cdots \pm \mathbf{e}_{i_k} : \{i_1,\dots, i_k\} \text{ is an antichain of } P\}. \] They study the geometric and combinatorial properties of \(\mathscr{E}_P\). In particular they relate the Ehrhart polynomial of the enriched chain polytope of the poset \(P\) with the left enriched order polynomial of \(P\). They also relate the \(h^*\)-polynomial of the enriched chain polytope of the \(P\) with the left peak polynomial of \(P\).











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