Few smooth d-polytopes with n lattice points

We prove that, for fixed n there exist only finitely many embeddings of Q-factorial toric varieties X into P^n that are induced by a complete linear system. The proof is based on a combinatorial result that for fixed nonnegative integers d and n, there are only finitely many smooth d-polytopes with n lattice points. We also enumerate all smooth 3-polytopes with at most 12 lattice points. In fact, it is sufficient to bound the singularities and the number of lattice points on edges to prove finiteness.Comment: 20+2 pages; major revision: new author, new structure, new result

Multiplicative structure of 2x2 tropical matrices

We study the algebraic structure of the semigroup of all $2 \times 2$ tropical matrices under multiplication. Using ideas from tropical geometry, we give a complete description of Green's relations and the idempotents and maximal subgroups of this semigroup.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

Good Random Matrices over Finite Fields

The random matrix uniformly distributed over the set of all m-by-n matrices over a finite field plays an important role in many branches of information theory. In this paper a generalization of this random matrix, called k-good random matrices, is studied. It is shown that a k-good random m-by-n matrix with a distribution of minimum support size is uniformly distributed over a maximum-rank-distance (MRD) code of minimum rank distance min{m,n}-k+1, and vice versa. Further examples of k-good random matrices are derived from homogeneous weights on matrix modules. Several applications of k-good random matrices are given, establishing links with some well-known combinatorial problems. Finally, the related combinatorial concept of a k-dense set of m-by-n matrices is studied, identifying such sets as blocking sets with respect to (m-k)-dimensional flats in a certain m-by-n matrix geometry and determining their minimum size in special cases.Comment: 25 pages, publishe

Classification of real Bott manifolds and acyclic digraphs

We completely characterize real Bott manifolds up to affine diffeomorphism in terms of three simple matrix operations on square binary matrices obtained from strictly upper triangular matrices by permuting rows and columns simultaneously. We also prove that any graded ring isomorphism between the cohomology rings of real Bott manifolds with $\mathbb Z/2$ coefficients is induced by an affine diffeomorphism between the real Bott manifolds. Our characterization can also be described in terms of graph operations on directed acyclic graphs. Using this combinatorial interpretation, we prove that the decomposition of a real Bott manifold into a product of indecomposable real Bott manifolds is unique up to permutations of the indecomposable factors. Finally, we produce some numerical invariants of real Bott manifolds from the viewpoint of graph theory and discuss their topological meaning. As a by-product, we prove that the toral rank conjecture holds for real Bott manifolds.Comment: 27 pages, 5 figures. It is a combination of arXiv:0809.2178 and arXiv:1002.4704, including some new result