Videos

Ehrhart Unimodality and Simplices for Numeral Systems

Presenter
September 6, 2017
Keywords:
  • Ehrhart
  • weighted projective space
  • real-rooted polynomials
  • unimodal
  • symmetric
  • Eulerian polynomial
  • binomial coefficients
  • numeral system
  • factoradics
  • binary numbers
  • lattice simplices
MSC:
  • 52B20
  • 52B05
Abstract
In the field of Ehrhart theory, identification of lattice polytopes with unimodal Ehrhart h*-polynomials is a cornerstone investigation. The study of h*-unimodality is home to numerous long-standing conjectures within the field, and proofs thereof often reveal interesting algebra and combinatorics intrinsic to the associated lattice polytopes. Proof techniques for h*-unimodality are plentiful, and some are apparently more dependent on the lattice geometry of the polytope than others. In recent years, proving a polynomial has only real-roots has gained traction as a technique for verifying unimodality of h-polynomials in general. However, the geometric underpinnings of the real-rooted phenomena for h*-unimodality are not well-understood. As such, more examples of this property are always noteworthy. In this talk, we will discuss a family of lattice n-simplices that associate via their normalized volumes to the n^th-place values of positional numeral systems. The h*-polynomials for simplices associated to special systems such as the factoradics and the binary numerals recover ubiquitous h-polynomials, namely the Eulerian polynomials and binomial coefficients, respectively. Simplices associated to any base-r numeral system are also provably real-rooted. We will put the h*-real-rootedness of the simplices for numeral systems in context with that of their cousins, the s-lecture hall simplices, and discuss their admittance of this phenomena as it relates to other, more intrinsically geometric, reasons for h*-unimodality.