On the sum of a parallelotope and a zonotope (Q404442)

Let \(P\) be a parallelotope in \(\mathbb R^n\), i.e., a polytope that admits a facet-to-facet tiling of the finite-dimensional linear space \(\mathbb R^n\). For \(P\), a vector \(u\) is called free if the Minkowski sum \(P+z(u)\) of \(P\) and the segment \(z(u)\) with endpoints \(u\) and \(-u\) is again a parallelotope. The authors consider the following question: for a finite subset \(U\) of \(\mathbb R^n\) and the zonotope \(Z(U)=\sum_{u \in U} z(u)\) generated by \(U\), when is the Minkowski sum \(P+Z(U)\) a parallelotope? It is known that if \(P+Z(U)\) is a parallelotope, then {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[1.] every vector \(u \in U\) has to be free and \item[2.] the set \(U\) has to be unimodular, that is, for every basis \(B \subseteq U\) of the linear space spanned by \(U\) the coefficients of every vector \(u \in U\) in the basis \(U\) are integer values. NEWLINENEWLINE\end{itemize}} Free vectors were characterized in [\textit{V. P. Grishukhin}, Sb. Math. 195, No. 5, 669--686 (2004); translation from Mat. Sb. 195, No. 5, 59--78 (2004; Zbl 1086.52004)]; since the proof of the characterization in the latter source was incomplete, the complete proof is provided in Section~4.NEWLINENEWLINEThe above general facts are used to provide a characterization of sets \(U\) for which \(P+Z(U)\) is a parallelotope in the case that \(P\) is the Voronoi cell of the root lattice \(E_8\). The authors also study Voronoi cells of some further highly symmetric lattices.