A Geometric Lower Bound Theorem

We resolve a conjecture of Kalai relating approximation theory of convex bodies by simplicial polytopes to the face numbers and primitive Betti numbers of these polytopes and their toric varieties. The proof uses higher notions of chordality. Further, for C^2-convex bodies, asymptotically tight lower bounds on the g-numbers of the approximating polytopes are given, in terms of their Hausdorff distance from the convex body.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures, to appear in Geometric and Functional Analysi

Arithmetic geometry of toric varieties. Metrics, measures and heights

We show that the height of a toric variety with respect to a toric metrized line bundle can be expressed as the integral over a polytope of a certain adelic family of concave functions. To state and prove this result, we study the Arakelov geometry of toric varieties. In particular, we consider models over a discrete valuation ring, metrized line bundles, and their associated measures and heights. We show that these notions can be translated in terms of convex analysis, and are closely related to objects like polyhedral complexes, concave functions, real Monge-Amp\`ere measures, and Legendre-Fenchel duality. We also present a closed formula for the integral over a polytope of a function of one variable composed with a linear form. This allows us to compute the height of toric varieties with respect to some interesting metrics arising from polytopes. We also compute the height of toric projective curves with respect to the Fubini-Study metric, and of some toric bundles.Comment: Revised version, 230 pages, 3 figure

Partial Differential Equations

The workshop dealt with nonlinear partial differential equations and some applications in geometry, touching several different topics such as minimal surfaces and harmonic maps, equations in conformal geometry, geometric flows, extremal eigenvalue problems and optimal transport

Geometric and Topological Combinatorics

The 2007 Oberwolfach meeting “Geometric and Topological Combinatorics” presented a great variety of investigations where topological and algebraic methods are brought into play to solve combinatorial and geometric problems, but also where geometric and combinatorial ideas are applied to topological questions

Tropical Positivity and Semialgebraic Sets from Polytopes

This dissertation presents recent contributions in tropical geometry with a view towards positivity, and on certain semialgebraic sets which are constructed from polytopes. Tropical geometry is an emerging field in mathematics, combining elements of algebraic geometry and polyhedral geometry. A key in establishing this bridge is the concept of tropicalization, which is often described as mapping an algebraic variety to its 'combinatorial shadow'. This shadow is a polyhedral complex and thus allows to study the algebraic variety by combinatorial means. Recently, the positive part, i.e. the intersection of the variety with the positive orthant, has enjoyed rising attention. A driving question in recent years is: Can we characterize the tropicalization of the positive part? In this thesis we introduce the novel notion of positive-tropical generators, a concept which may serve as a tool for studying positive parts in tropical geometry in a combinatorial fashion. We initiate the study of these as positive analogues of tropical bases, and extend our theory to the notion of signed-tropical generators for more general signed tropicalizations. Applying this to the tropicalization of determinantal varieties, we develop criteria for characterizing their positive part. Motivated by questions from optimization, we focus on the study of low-rank matrices, in particular matrices of rank 2 and 3. We show that in rank 2 the minors form a set of positive-tropical generators, which fully classifies the positive part. In rank 3 we develop the starship criterion, a geometric criterion which certifies non-positivity. Moreover, in the case of square-matrices of corank 1, we fully classify the signed tropicalization of the determinantal variety, even beyond the positive part. Afterwards, we turn to the study of polytropes, which are those polytopes that are both tropically and classically convex. In the literature they are also established as alcoved polytopes of type A. We describe methods from toric geometry for computing multivariate versions of volume, Ehrhart and h^*-polynomials of lattice polytropes. These algorithms are applied to all polytropes of dimensions 2,3 and 4, yielding a large class of integer polynomials. We give a complete combinatorial description of the coefficients of volume polynomials of 3-dimensional polytropes in terms of regular central subdivisions of the fundamental polytope, which is the root polytope of type A. Finally, we provide a partial characterization of the analogous coefficients in dimension 4. In the second half of the thesis, we shift the focus to study semialgebraic sets by combinatorial means. Intersection bodies are objects arising in geometric tomography and are known not to be semialgebraic in general. We study intersection bodies of polytopes and show that such an intersection body is always a semialgebraic set. Computing the irreducible components of the algebraic boundary, we provide an upper bound for the degree of these components. Furthermore, we give a full classification for the convexity of intersection bodies of polytopes in the plane. Towards the end of this thesis, we move to the study of a problem from game theory, considering the correlated equilibrium polytope $P_G$ of a game G from a combinatorial point of view. We introduce the region of full-dimensionality for this class of polytopes, and prove that it is a semialgebraic set for any game. Through the use of oriented matroid strata, we propose a structured method for classifying the possible combinatorial types of $P_G$, and show that for (2 x n)-games, the algebraic boundary of each stratum is a union of coordinate hyperplanes and binomial hypersurfaces. Finally, we provide a computational proof that there exists a unique combinatorial type of maximal dimension for (2 x 3)-games.:Introduction 1. Background 2. Tropical Positivity and Determinantal Varieties 3. Multivariate Volume, Ehrhart, and h^*-Polynomials of Polytropes 4. Combinatorics of Correlated Equilibri