Sectional genus and the volume of a lattice polytope

Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics - For a convex lattice polytope having at least one interior lattice point, a lower bound for its volume is derived from Hibi’s lower bound theorem for the...     

Computing the Ehrhart polynomial of a convex lattice polytope

We prove that computation of any fixed number of highest coefficients of the Ehrhart polynomial of an integral polytope can be reduced in polynomial time to computation of the volumes of faces. This research was supported by the United States Army Research Office through the Army Center of Excellence for Symbolic Methods in Algorithmic Mathematics (ACSyAM), Mathematical Sciences Institute of Cornell University, Contract DAAL03-91-C-0027.     

Computing the face lattice of a polytope from its vertex-facet incidences

We give an algorithm that constructs the Hasse diagram of the face lattice of a convex polytope P from its vertex-facet incidences in time O(min{n,m}··), where n is the number of vertices, m is the number of facets, is the number of vertex-facet incidences, and  is the total number of faces of P. This improves results of Fukuda and Rosta [Computational Geometry 4 (4) (1994) 191–198], who described an algorithm for enumerating all faces of a d-polytope in O(min{n,m}·d·²) steps. For simple or simplicial d-polytopes our algorithm can be specialized to run in time O(d··). Furthermore, applications of the algorithm to other atomic lattices are discussed, e.g., to face lattices of oriented matroids.     

The lattice of flats and its underlying flag matroid polytope

LetM be a matroid andF the collection of all linear orderings of bases ofM, orflags ofM. We define the flag matroid polytope Δ(F). We determine when two vertices of Δ(F) are adjacent, and provide a bijection between maximal chains in the lattice of flats ofM and certain maximal faces of Δ(F). Supported in part by NSA grant MDA904-95-1-1056.     

Embedding relations in the lattice of recursively enumerable sets

Let ?* be the lattice of recursively enumerable sets of natural numbers modulo finite differences. We characterize the relations which can be embedded in ?* by using certain collections of maximal sets as domain and using Lachlan's notion of major subsets to code in the relation in certain natural ways. We show that attempts to prove the undecidability of ?* by using such embeddings fail.     

Cutting a polytope

We investigate whether it is the case that for every convexd-polytopeP and pair of distinct verticesx andy ofP, there exists a hyperplane passing throughx andy which cutsP into two smallerd-polytopes, one of which has fewer facets thanP. Such a result would lead to inductive proofs of Conjectures 1 and 2 below. However, ford4, our answer is in the negative.     

Triangulating a nonconvex polytope

This paper is concerned with the problem of partitioning a three-dimensional nonconvex polytope into a small number of elementary convex parts. The need for such decompositions arises in tool design, computer-aided manufacturing, finite-element methods, and robotics. Our main result is an algorithm for decomposing a nonconvex polytope of zero genus withn vertices andr reflex edges intoO(n +r ²) tetrahedra. This bound is asymptotically tight in the worst case. The algorithm requiresO(n +r ²) space and runs inO((n +r ²) logr) time.This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under Grant CCR-8700917.     

Integration on a convex polytope

We present an exact formula for integrating a (positively) homogeneous function on a convex polytope . We show that it suffices to integrate the function on the -dimensional faces of , thus reducing the computational burden. Further properties are derived when has continuous higher order derivatives. This result can be used to integrate a continuous function after approximation via a polynomial.

     

Facet-reducing cuts of a convex polytope

We construct, for everyd>-4, ad-polytopeP⊂ℝ ^d , containing two verticesv andw such that no hyperplane of ℝ ^d containingv andw has more than one facet ofP in either of its closed half-spaces. The result shows that facet-reducing cuts containing a prespecified pair of vertices of a polytope, do not exist in general. This research was supported in part by an NSF Research Initiation Award.     

The depth of a reflexive polytope

Given arbitrary integers d and r with $$d \ge 4$$ and $$1 \le r \le d + 1$$ , a reflexive polytope $${\mathscr {P}}\subset {\mathbb R}^d$$ of dimension d with $$\mathrm{depth}\,K[{\mathscr {P}}] = r$$ for which its dual polytope $${\mathscr {P}}^\vee $$ is normal will be constructed, where $$K[{\mathscr {P}}]$$ is the toric ring of $${\mathscr {P}}$$ .     

The smallest point of a polytope

This note suggests new ways for calculating the point of smallest Euclidean norm in the convex hull of a given set of points inR ⁿ . It is shown that the problem can be formulated as a linear least-square problem with nonnegative variables or as a least-distance problem. Numerical experiments illustrate that the least-square problem is solved efficiently by the active set method. The advantage of the new approach lies in the solution of large sparse problems. In this case, the new formulation permits the use of row relaxation methods. In particular, the least-distance problem can be solved by Hildreth's method.     

Quermassintegrals of a random polytope in a convex body

Let K be a convex body in \mathbbRⁿ \mathbb{R}^n with volume |K| = 1 |K| = 1 . We choose N 3 n+1 N \geq n+1 points x₁,?, x_N x_1,\ldots, x_N independently and uniformly from K, and write C(x₁,?, x_N) C(x_1,\ldots, x_N) for their convex hull. Let f : \mathbbR⁺ ? \mathbbR⁺ f : \mathbb{R^+} \rightarrow \mathbb{R^+} be a continuous strictly increasing function and 0 ￡ i ￡ n-1 0 \leq i \leq n-1 . Then, the quantity¶¶E (K, N, f °W_i) = ò_K ?ò_K f[W_i(C(x₁, ?, x_N))]dx_N ?dx₁ E (K, N, f \circ W_{i}) = \int\limits_{K} \ldots \int\limits_{K} f[W_{i}(C(x_1, \ldots, x_N))]dx_{N} \ldots dx_1 ¶¶is minimal if K is a ball (W_i is the i-th quermassintegral of a compact convex set). If f is convex and strictly increasing and 1 ￡ i ￡ n-1 1 \leq i \leq n-1 , then the ball is the only extremal body. These two facts generalize a result of H. Groemer on moments of the volume of C(x₁,?, x_N) C(x_1,\ldots, x_N) .     

The brick polytope of a sorting network

The associahedron is a polytope whose graph is the graph of flips on triangulations of a convex polygon. Pseudotriangulations and multitriangulations generalize triangulations in two different ways, which have been unified by Pilaud & Pocchiola in their study of flip graphs on pseudoline arrangements with contacts supported by a given sorting network.In this paper, we construct the brick polytope of a sorting network, obtained as the convex hull of the brick vectors associated to each pseudoline arrangement supported by the network. We combinatorially characterize the vertices of this polytope, describe its faces, and decompose it as a Minkowski sum of matroid polytopes.Our brick polytopes include Hohlweg & Lange’s many realizations of the associahedron, which arise as brick polytopes for certain well-chosen sorting networks. We furthermore discuss the brick polytopes of sorting networks supporting pseudoline arrangements which correspond to multitriangulations of convex polygons: our polytopes only realize subgraphs of the flip graphs on multitriangulations and they cannot appear as projections of a hypothetical multiassociahedron.     

Constructing a polytope to approximate a convex body

We develop an algorithm to construct a convex polytopeP withn vertices, contained in an arbitrary convex bodyK inR ^d , so that the ratio of the volumes |K/P|/|K| is dominated byc ·. d/n ^2/(d–1).Supported in part by the fund for the promotion of research in the Technion     

Asymptotic shape of a random polytope in a convex body

Let K be an isotropic convex body in and let Z_q(K) be the L_q-centroid body of K. For every N>n consider the random polytope K_N:=conv{x₁,…,x_N} where x₁,…,x_N are independent random points, uniformly distributed in K. We prove that a random K_N is “asymptotically equivalent” to Z_[ln(N/n)](K) in the following sense: there exist absolute constants ρ₁,ρ₂>0 such that, for all and all NN(n,β), one has:

(i) K_Nc(β)Z_q(K) for every qρ₁ln(N/n), with probability greater than 1−c₁exp(−c₂N^1−βn^β).

(ii) For every qρ₂ln(N/n), the expected mean width of K_N is bounded by c₃w(Z_q(K)).

As an application we show that the volume radius |K_N|^1/n of a random K_N satisfies the bounds for all Nexp(n).

Completely unimodal numberings of a simple polytope

A completely unimodal numbering of the m vertices of a simple d-dimensional polytope is a numbering 0, 1, …,m−1 of the vertices such that on every k-dimensional face (2≤k≤d) there is exactly one local minimum (a vertex with no lower-numbered neighbors on that face). Such numberings are abstract objective functions in the sense of Adler and Saigal [1]. It is shown that a completely unimodal numbering of the vertices of a simple polytope induces a shelling of the facets of the dual simplicial polytope. The h-vector of the dual simplicial polytope is interpreted in terms of the numbering (with respect to using a local-improvement algorithm to locate the vertex numbered 0). In the case that the polytope is combinatorially equivalent to a d-dimensional cube, a ‘successor-tuple’ for each vertex is defined which carries the crucial information of the numbering for local-improvement algorithms. Combinatorial properties of these d-tuples are studied. Finally the running time of one particular local-improvement algorithm, the Random Algorithm, is studied for completely unimodal numberings of the d-cube. It is shown that for a certain class of numberings (which includes the example of Klee and Minty [8] showing that the simplex algorithm is not polynomial and all Hamiltonian saddle-free injective pseudo-Boolean functions [6]) this algorithm has expected running time that is at worst quadratic in the dimension d.     

Determining a matroid polytope by non-Radon partitions

Intrinsic characterizations of the faces of a matroid polytope from various subcollections of circuits or the family of its non-Radon partitions are given. Furthermore, it is proved that the characterization from the family of non-Radon partitions is strong enough to give algorithms for determining the faces of every nonsingular permissible projective transformation of a convex polytope.