On smooth Gorenstein polytopes (Q5962811)

Given a lattice \(M\) sitting in a vector space \(M_{\mathbf R} := M \otimes_{\mathbf Z} {\mathbf R}\), a lattice polytope \(P \subset M_{\mathbf R}\) is the convex hull of a finite set of lattice points in \(M\). If \(P\) contains the origin in its interior, then its dual \[ P^* \, := \, \left\{ y \in N_{\mathbf R} : \, \left< y, x \right> \geq -1 \;\text{for \;all} \;x \in P \right\} , \] where \(N\) is the dual lattice of \(M\), is again a polytope. (For most concrete applications, including the ones in the paper under review, it suffices to consider \(M = N = {\mathbf Z}^d\) and thus \(M_{\mathbf R} = N_{\mathbf R} = {\mathbf R}^d\), for some integer \(d \geq 1\).) A lattice polytope is reflexive if its dual is also a lattice polytope, and \(P\) is Gorenstein of index \(r\) if \(rP\) is the lattice translation of a reflexive polytope. (Such an \(r\) is unique if it exists.) Gorenstein polytopes arise naturally in combinatorial commutative algebra and enumerative geometric combinatorics and play a crucial role in the computation of Hodge numbers of mirror-symmetric generic Calabi-Yau complete intersections [\textit{V. V. Batyrev} and \textit{L. A. Borisov}, Invent. Math. 126, No. 1, 183--203 (1996; Zbl 0872.14035)]. A \(d\)-dimensional lattice polytope \(P\) is smooth if every vertex of \(P\) lies in exactly \(d\) edges and the primitive edge directions at each vertex form a lattice basis. Two notions equivalent to smoothness are the normal fan of \(P\) being unimodular and the toric variety associated to \(P\) being nonsingular, and the authors illustrate why one might be interested in smooth polytopes. The paper under review gives the state of the art of smooth Gorenstein polytopes and serves as an excellent compact introduction to this polyhedral family. New results include a classification of \(d\)-dimensional smooth Gorenstein polytopes of index \(> {d \over 3} + 1\) and a classification of smooth Gorenstein polytopes in low dimensions. Applications include a database of all toric Fano \(d\)-folds whose anticanonical divisor is divisible by an integer \(r \geq d-7\), and a proof that there are only finitely many families of Calabi-Yau complete intersections of fixed dimension that are associated to a smooth Gorenstein polytope via the Batyrev-Borisov construction.