Counterexamples of the conjecture on roots of Ehrhart polynomials (Q411392)

To a lattice polytope \(P \subset {\mathbb R}^d\) (i.e., the convex hull of finitely many points in \({\mathbb Z}^d\)), we associate the integer-point counting function \(L_P(t) := \# \left( tP \cap {\mathbb Z}^d \right)\), defined for positive integers \(t\). \textit{E. Ehrhart}'s famous theorem [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris 254, 616--618 (1962; Zbl 0100.27601)] asserts that \(L_P(t)\) is a polynomial in \(t\). The paper under review constructs a lattice polytope (in fact, a lattice \textit{simplex}) whose Ehrhart polynomial equals \({{ d+n } \choose { d }} + m {{ d+n-k } \choose { d }}\), for any given positive integers \(m, d, k\) satisfying \(d \geq 2\) and \(1 \leq k \leq \lfloor {{ d+1 } \over { 2 }} \rfloor\). For the case \(m = 9\), \(d = 15\), and \(k = 8\) (and several more examples given in the paper), this Ehrhart polynomial has a root whose real part is larger than \(d-1 = 14\), violating a conjecture of [\textit{M. Beck, J. A. De Loera, M. Develin, J. Pfeifle} and \textit{R. P. Stanley}, Contemp. Math. 374, 15--36 (2005; Zbl 1153.52300)].