A new formula for the volume of lattice polyhedra (Q1126393)

Let \(L_n\) be the lattice consisting of all points \(x\) in \(\mathbb{R}^N\) such that \(nx\) belongs to the fundamental lattice \(L_1\) of points with integer coordinates. When the vertices of a polyhedron \(P\) in \(\mathbb{R}^N\) are restricted to lie in \(L_1\) there is a formula of MacDonald which relates the volume of a proper polyhedron \(P\), i.e. a polyhedron which is the closure of its interior, to the numbers \(I_1,\dots,I_N\) respectively \(B_1,\dots,B_N\) of points of \(L_1,\dots,L_N\) in the interior respectively on the boundary of \(P\). Namely: \[ (N-1)N!V(P) = \sum^{N-1}_{k=1} (-1)^{k-1} {N-1 \choose k-1} (B_{N-k}+ 2I_{N-k}) +(-1)^{N-1} \biggl[2 \chi(P)-\chi \bigl(\partial (P)\bigr) \biggr]. \] The aim of this note is to show that the volume of \(P\) can be determined in terms of the numbers \(I_1,\dots,I_N\) of the interior lattice points in \(P\) with the formula: \[ N!V(P)= \sum^{N-1}_{k=0} (-1)^k {N\choose k} I_{N-k}+ (-1)^N \biggl[\chi(P) -\chi \bigl(\partial(P) \bigr) \biggr]. \] It is also shown that there is no similar formula for the volume of \(P\) in terms of \(B_1, \dots, B_N\) only, but that the Euler characteristic of the boundary of any proper lattice polyhedron \(P\) in \(\mathbb{R}^N\) can be expressed in terms of \(B_1, \dots, B_N\).