The boundary volume of a lattice polytope

For a d-dimensional convex lattice polytope P, a formula for the boundary volume is derived in terms of the number of boundary lattice points on the first \floor{d/2} dilations of P. As an application we give a necessary and sufficient condition for a polytope to be reflexive, and derive formulae for the f-vector of a smooth polytope in dimensions 3, 4, and 5. We also give applications to reflexive order polytopes, and to the Birkhoff polytope.Comment: 21 pages; subsumes arXiv:1002.1908 [math.CO]; to appear in the Bulletin of the Australian Mathematical Societ

A note on palindromic δ\delta-vectors for certain rational polytopes

Let P be a convex polytope containing the origin, whose dual is a lattice polytope. Hibi's Palindromic Theorem tells us that if P is also a lattice polytope then the Ehrhart $\delta$-vector of P is palindromic. Perhaps less well-known is that a similar result holds when P is rational. We present an elementary lattice-point proof of this fact.Comment: 4 page

Toric Fano three-folds with terminal singularities

This paper classifies all toric Fano 3-folds with terminal singularities. This is achieved by solving the equivalent combinatoric problem; that of finding, up to the action of GL(3,Z), all convex polytopes in Z^3 which contain the origin as the only non-vertex lattice point

Small polygons and toric codes

We describe two different approaches to making systematic classifications of plane lattice polygons, and recover the toric codes they generate, over small fields, where these match or exceed the best known minimum distance. This includes a [36,19,12]-code over F_7 whose minimum distance 12 exceeds that of all previously known codes.Comment: 9 pages, 4 tables, 3 figure

Mutations of fake weighted projective planes

In previous work by Coates, Galkin, and the authors, the notion of mutation between lattice polytopes was introduced. Such a mutation gives rise to a deformation between the corresponding toric varieties. In this paper we study one-step mutations that correspond to deformations between weighted projective planes, giving a complete characterisation of such mutations in terms of T-singularities. We show also that the weights involved satisfy Diophantine equations, generalising results of Hacking-Prokhorov

Monitoring genetic population biomarkers for wastewater-based epidemiology

We report a rapid “sample-to-answer” platform that can be used for the quantitative monitoring of genetic biomarkers within communities through the analysis of wastewater. The assay is based on the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) of nucleic acid biomarkers and shows for the first time the ability to rapidly quantify human-specific mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from raw untreated wastewater samples. mtDNA provides a model population biomarker associated with carcinogenesis including breast, renal and gastric cancers. To enable a sample-to-answer, field-based technology, we integrated a filter to remove solid impurities and perform DNA extraction and enrichment into a low cost lateral flow-based test. We demonstrated mtDNA detection over seven consecutive days, achieving a limit of detection of 40 copies of human genomic DNA per reaction volume. The assay can be performed at the site of sample collection, with minimal user intervention, yielding results within 45 min and providing a method to monitor public health from wastewater

A note on palindromic δ-vectors for certain rational polytopes

Let P be a convex polytope containing the origin, whose dual is a lattice polytope. Hibi's Palindromic Theorem tells us that if P is also a lattice polytope then the Ehrhart δ-vector of P is palindromic. Perhaps less well-known is that a similar result holds when P is rational. We present an elementary lattice-point proof of this fact

Fano polytopes

Fano polytopes are the convex-geometric objects corresponding to toric Fano varieties. We give a brief survey of classification results for different classes of Fano polytopes

A note on palindromic δ-vectors for certain rational polytopes

Let P be a convex polytope containing the origin, whose dual is a lattice polytope. Hibi's Palindromic Theorem tells us that if P is also a lattice polytope then the Ehrhart δ-vector of P is palindromic. Perhaps less well-known is that a similar result holds when P is rational. We present an elementary lattice-point proof of this fact

Reflexive polytopes of higher index and the number 12

We introduce reflexive polytopes of index l as a natural generalisation of the notion of a reflexive polytope of index 1. These l-reflexive polytopes also appear as dual pairs. In dimension two we show that they arise from reflexive polygons via a change of the underlying lattice. This allows us to efficiently classify all isomorphism classes of l-reflexive polygons up to index 200. As another application, we show that any reflexive polygon of arbitrary index satisfies the famous "number 12" property. This is a new, infinite class of lattice polygons possessing this property, and extends the previously known sixteen instances. The number 12 property also holds more generally for l-reflexive non-convex or self-intersecting polygonal loops. We conclude by discussing higher-dimensional examples and open questions