Smooth Fano polytopes whose Ehrhart polynomial has a root with large real part (Q411396)

For \(d \geq 3\), let \(e_1, e_2, \dots, e_{ d+1 }\) denote the standard unit vectors in \({\mathbb R}^{ d+1 }\). Let \(P_d\) be the convex hull of \(\pm e_1 \mp e_2 + e_{ d+1 }\), \(\pm e_2 \mp e_3 + e_{ d+1 }\), \dots, \(\pm e_{ d-1 } \mp e_d + e_{ d+1 }\), \(\pm e_d \mp e_1 + e_{ d+1 }\), and \(e_{ d+1 }\); thus in the language of [\textit{H. Ohsugi} and \textit{T. Hibi}, ``Centrally symmetric configurations of integer matrices'', \url{arXiv:1105.4322}], \(P_d\) is the \textit{symmetric edge polytope} of the cycle of length~\(d\). The paper under review constructs a reduced Gröbner basis of the toric ideal corresponding to \(P_d\) and use it to compute the Ehrhart polynomial of \(P_d\) (which counts the integer lattice points in dilates of \(P_d\)). For \(d=127\), this Ehrhart polynomial has a root whose real part is greater than \(\dim(P_d) = 126\), violating conjectures of \textit{M. Beck, J. A. De Loera, M. Develin, J. Pfeifle} and \textit{R. P. Stanley} [``Coefficients and roots of Ehrhart polynomials'', Mathematical Society (AMS). Contemporary Mathematics 374, 15--36 (2005; Zbl 1153.52300)] and, since \(P_{127}\) is smooth and reflexive, \textit{T. Matsui} et al. [``Roots of Ehrhart polynomials arising from graphs'', J. Algebr. Comb. 34, No. 4, 721--749 (2011; Zbl 1229.05122)].