No Arabic abstract
We study intermediate sums, interpolating between integrals and discrete sums, which were introduced by A. Barvinok [Computing the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial of a rational simplex, Math. Comp. 75 (2006), 1449--1466]. For a given semi-rational polytope P and a rational subspace L, we integrate a given polynomial function h over all lattice slices of the polytope P parallel to the subspace L and sum up the integrals. We first develop an algorithmic theory of parametric intermediate generating functions. Then we study the Ehrhart theory of these intermediate sums, that is, the dependence of the result as a function of a dilation of the polytope. We provide an algorithm to compute the resulting Ehrhart quasi-polynomials in the form of explicit step polynomials. These formulas are naturally valid for real (not just integer) dilations and thus provide a direct approach to real Ehrhart theory.
This article concerns the computational problem of counting the lattice points inside convex polytopes, when each point must be counted with a weight associated to it. We describe an efficient algorithm for computing the highest degree coefficients of the weighted Ehrhart quasi-polynomial for a rational simple polytope in varying dimension, when the weights of the lattice points are given by a polynomial function h. Our technique is based on a refinement of an algorithm of A. Barvinok [Computing the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial of a rational simplex, Math. Comp. 75 (2006), pp. 1449--1466] in the unweighted case (i.e., h = 1). In contrast to Barvinoks method, our method is local, obtains an approximation on the level of generating functions, handles the general weighted case, and provides the coefficients in closed form as step polynomials of the dilation. To demonstrate the practicality of our approach we report on computational experiments which show even our simple implementation can compete with state of the art software.
We continue our study of intermediate sums over polyhedra, interpolating between integrals and discrete sums, which were introduced by A. Barvinok [Computing the Ehrhart quasi-polynomial of a rational simplex, Math. Comp. 75 (2006), 1449-1466]. By well-known decompositions, it is sufficient to consider the case of affine cones s+c, where s is an arbitrary real vertex and c is a rational polyhedral cone. For a given rational subspace L, we integrate a given polynomial function h over all lattice slices of the affine cone s + c parallel to the subspace L and sum up the integrals. We study these intermediate sums by means of the intermediate generating functions $S^L(s+c)(xi)$, and expose the bidegree structure in parameters s and $xi$, which was implicitly used in the algorithms in our papers [Computation of the highest coefficients of weighted Ehrhart quasi-polynomials of rational polyhedra, Found. Comput. Math. 12 (2012), 435-469] and [Intermediate sums on polyhedra: Computation and real Ehrhart theory, Mathematika 59 (2013), 1-22]. The bidegree structure is key to a new proof for the Baldoni--Berline--Vergne approximation theorem for discrete generating functions [Local Euler--Maclaurin expansion of Barvinok valuations and Ehrhart coefficients of rational polytopes, Contemp. Math. 452 (2008), 15-33], using the Fourier analysis with respect to the parameter s and a continuity argument. Our study also enables a forthcoming paper, in which we study intermediate sums over multi-parameter families of polytopes.
A lattice polytope is free (or empty) if its vertices are the only lattice points it contains. In the context of valuation theory, Klain (1999) proposed to study the functions $alpha_i(P;n)$ that count the number of free polytopes in $nP$ with $i$ vertices. For $i=1$, this is the famous Ehrhart polynomial. For $i > 3$, the computation is likely impossible and for $i=2,3$ computationally challenging. In this paper, we develop a theory of coprime Ehrhart functions, that count lattice points with relatively prime coordinates, and use it to compute $alpha_2(P;n)$ for unimodular simplices. We show that the coprime Ehrhart function can be explicitly determined from the Ehrhart polynomial and we give some applications to combinatorial counting.
Given a convex polyhedral surface P, we define a tailoring as excising from P a simple polygonal domain that contains one vertex v, and whose boundary can be sutured closed to a new convex polyhedron via Alexandrovs Gluing Theorem. In particular, a digon-tailoring cuts off from P a digon containing v, a subset of P bounded by two equal-length geodesic segments that share endpoints, and can then zip closed. In the first part of this monograph, we primarily study properties of the tailoring operation on convex polyhedra. We show that P can be reshaped to any polyhedral convex surface Q a subset of conv(P) by a sequence of tailorings. This investigation uncovered previously unexplored topics, including a notion of unfolding of Q onto P--cutting up Q into pieces pasted non-overlapping onto P. In the second part of this monograph, we study vertex-merging processes on convex polyhedra (each vertex-merge being in a sense the reverse of a digon-tailoring), creating embeddings of P into enlarged surfaces. We aim to produce non-overlapping polyhedral and planar unfoldings, which led us to develop an apparently new theory of convex sets, and of minimal length enclosing polygons, on convex polyhedra. All our theorem proofs are constructive, implying polynomial-time algorithms.
Let C be a simple, closed, directed curve on the surface of a convex polyhedron P. We identify several classes of curves C that live on a cone, in the sense that C and a neighborhood to one side may be isometrically embedded on the surface of a cone Lambda, with the apex a of Lambda enclosed inside (the image of) C; we also prove that each point of C is visible to a. In particular, we obtain that these curves have non-self-intersecting developments in the plane. Moreover, the curves we identify that live on cones to both sides support a new type of source unfolding of the entire surface of P to one non-overlapping piece, as reported in a companion paper.