A finite calculus approach to Ehrhart polynomials

MaRDI QIDQ976720zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Steven V. Sam, Kevin M. Woods

Publication date 16 June 2010

Published in The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0904.0679, https://eudml.org/doc/223104, http://www.emis.de/journals/EJC/Volume_17/Abstracts/v17i1r68.html

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zbMATH Keywords

Ehrhart quasipolynomialEhrhart-Macdonald reciprocity theoremlattice pointsrational polytope

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Lattices and convex bodies in (n) dimensions (aspects of discrete geometry) (52C07)

Abstract: A rational polytope is the convex hull of a finite set of points in $R^d$ with rational coordinates. Given a rational polytope $Psubseteq{R}^d$, Ehrhart proved that, for $$, the function $$ agrees with a quasi-polynomial $L_P(t)$, called the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial. The Ehrhart quasi-polynomial can be regarded as a discrete version of the volume of a polytope. We use that analogy to derive a new proof of Ehrhart's theorem. This proof also allows us to quickly prove two other facts about Ehrhart quasi-polynomials: McMullen's theorem about the periodicity of the individual coefficients of the quasi-polynomial and the Ehrhart-Macdonald theorem on reciprocity.

Review text

To a rational polytope \(P \subset {\mathbb R}^d\) (i.e., the convex hull of finitely many points in \({\mathbb Q}^d\)), we associate the integer-point counting function \(L_P(t) := \# \left( tP \cap {\mathbb Z}^d \right)\), defined for positive integers \(t\). Ehrhart's famous theorem [\textit{E. Ehrhart}, C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris 254, 616--618 (1962; Zbl 0100.27601)] asserts that \(L_P\) is a \textit{quasipolynomial} in \(t\), i.e., \(L_P\) is of the form \[ L_P(t) = c_n(t) \, t^n + c_{ n-1 }(t) \, t^{ n-1 } + \cdots + c_1(t) \, t + c_0(t) \, , \] where \(c_0, c_1, \dots, c_n\) are periodic functions of \(t\). If \(P\) is an \textit{integral} polytope, i.e., the vertices of \(P\) are in \({\mathbb Z}^d\), then the period of \(c_0, c_1, \dots, c_n\) is one, i.e., \(L_P\) is a polynomial. The paper under review gives a new, elementary proof of Ehrhart's theorem by inductively summing over cross sections of a rational polytope. This proof is then adapted to give novel proofs of two other central theorems about Ehrhart quasipolynomials, namely Ehrhart-Macdonald reciprocity, which gives the \textit{interior} lattice-point count by evaluating \(\pm L_P(-t)\) [\textit{I. G. Macdonald}, J. Lond. Math. Soc., II. Ser. 4, 181--192 (1971; Zbl 0216.45205)], and McMullen's theorem on the periods of an Ehrhart quasipolynomial [\textit{P. McMullen}, Arch. Math. 31, 509--516 (1978; Zbl 0387.52007)].

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