Lattice polytopes in coding theory

In this paper we discuss combinatorial questions about lattice polytopes motivated by recent results on minimum distance estimation for toric codes. We also prove a new inductive bound for the minimum distance of generalized toric codes. As an application, we give new formulas for the minimum distance of generalized toric codes for special lattice point configurations.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figure

Bezout Inequality for Mixed volumes

In this paper we consider the following analog of Bezout inequality for mixed volumes: $$V(P_1,\dots,P_r,\Delta^{n-r})V_n(\Delta)^{r-1}\leq \prod_{i=1}^r V(P_i,\Delta^{n-1})\ \text{ for }2\leq r\leq n.$$ We show that the above inequality is true when $\Delta$ is an $n$-dimensional simplex and $P_1, \dots, P_r$ are convex bodies in $\mathbb{R}^n$. We conjecture that if the above inequality is true for all convex bodies $P_1, \dots, P_r$, then $\Delta$ must be an $n$-dimensional simplex. We prove that if the above inequality is true for all convex bodies $P_1, \dots, P_r$, then $\Delta$ must be indecomposable (i.e. cannot be written as the Minkowski sum of two convex bodies which are not homothetic to $\Delta$), which confirms the conjecture when $\Delta$ is a simple polytope and in the 2-dimensional case. Finally, we connect the inequality to an inequality on the volume of orthogonal projections of convex bodies as well as prove an isomorphic version of the inequality.Comment: 18 pages, 2 figures; an error in the isomorphic version of the inequality is corrected (which improved the inequality

Toric Complete Intersection Codes

In this paper we construct evaluation codes on zero-dimensional complete intersections in toric varieties and give lower bounds for their minimum distance. This generalizes the results of Gold–Little–Schenck and Ballico–Fontanari who considered evaluation codes on complete intersections in the projective space

Classification of triples of lattice polytopes with a given mixed volume

We present an algorithm for the classification of triples of lattice polytopes with a given mixed volume $m$ in dimension 3. It is known that the classification can be reduced to the enumeration of so-called irreducible triples, the number of which is finite for fixed $m$. Following this algorithm, we enumerate all irreducible triples of normalized mixed volume up to 4 that are inclusion-maximal. This produces a classification of generic trivariate sparse polynomial systems with up to 4 solutions in the complex torus, up to monomial changes of variables. By a recent result of Esterov, this leads to a description of all generic trivariate sparse polynomial systems that are solvable by radicals

Generalized multiplicities of edge ideals

We explore connections between the generalized multiplicities of square-free monomial ideals and the combinatorial structure of the underlying hypergraphs using methods of commutative algebra and polyhedral geometry. For instance, we show the $j$-multiplicity is multiplicative over the connected components of a hypergraph, and we explicitly relate the $j$-multiplicity of the edge ideal of a properly connected uniform hypergraph to the Hilbert-Samuel multiplicity of its special fiber ring. In addition, we provide general bounds for the generalized multiplicities of the edge ideals and compute these invariants for classes of uniform hypergraphs.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures. The results of Theorem 4.6 and Theorem 9.2 are now more general. To appear in Journal of Algebraic Combinatoric

Wulff shapes and a characterization of simplices via a Bezout type inequality

Inspired by a fundamental theorem of Bernstein, Kushnirenko, and Khovanskii we study the following Bezout type inequality for mixed volumes $$V(L_1,\dots,L_{n})V_n(K)\leq V(L_1,K[{n-1}])V(L_2,\dots, L_{n},K).$$ We show that the above inequality characterizes simplices, i.e. if $K$ is a convex body satisfying the inequality for all convex bodies $L_1, \dots, L_n \subset {\mathbb R}^n$, then $K$ must be an $n$-dimensional simplex. The main idea of the proof is to study perturbations given by Wulff shapes. In particular, we prove a new theorem on differentiability of the support function of the Wulff shape, which is of independent interest. In addition, we study the Bezout inequality for mixed volumes introduced in arXiv:1507.00765 . We introduce the class of weakly decomposable convex bodies which is strictly larger than the set of all polytopes that are non-simplices. We show that the Bezout inequality in arXiv:1507.00765 characterizes weakly indecomposable convex bodies

Tropical determinant on transportation polytope

Let ${\mathcal D}^{k,l}(m,n)$ be the set of all the integer points in the transportation polytope of $kn\times ln$ matrices with row sums $lm$ and column sums $km$. In this paper we find the sharp lower bound on the tropical determinant over the set ${\mathcal D}^{k,l}(m,n)$. This integer piecewise-linear programming problem in arbitrary dimension turns out to be equivalent to an integer non-linear (in fact, quadratic) optimization problem in dimension two. We also compute the sharp upper bound on a modification of the tropical determinant, where the maximum over all the transversals in a matrix is replaced with the minimum.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure

Characterization of Simplices via the Bezout Inequality for Mixed volumes

We consider the following Bezout inequality for mixed volumes: $$V(K_1,\dots,K_r,\Delta[{n-r}])V_n(\Delta)^{r-1}\leq \prod_{i=1}^r V(K_i,\Delta[{n-1}])\ \text{ for }2\leq r\leq n.$$ It was shown previously that the inequality is true for any $n$-dimensional simplex $\Delta$ and any convex bodies $K_1, \dots, K_r$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$. It was conjectured that simplices are the only convex bodies for which the inequality holds for arbitrary bodies $K_1, \dots, K_r$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$. In this paper we prove that this is indeed the case if we assume that $\Delta$ is a convex polytope. Thus the Bezout inequality characterizes simplices in the class of convex $n$-polytopes. In addition, we show that if a body $\Delta$ satisfies the Bezout inequality for all bodies $K_1, \dots, K_r$ then the boundary of $\Delta$ cannot have strict points. In particular, it cannot have points with positive Gaussian curvature.Comment: 8 page

Eventual Quasi-Linearity of The Minkowski Length

The Minkowski length of a lattice polytope PP is a natural generalization of the lattice diameter of PP. It can be defined as the largest number of lattice segments whose Minkowski sum is contained in PP. The famous Ehrhart theorem states that the number of lattice points in the positive integer dilates tPtP of a lattice polytope PP behaves polynomially in t∈Nt∈N. In this paper we prove that for any lattice polytope PP, the Minkowski length of tPtP for t∈Nt∈N is eventually a quasi-polynomial with linear constituents. We also give a formula for the Minkowski length of coordinates boxes, degree one polytopes, and dilates of unimodular simplices. In addition, we give a new bound for the Minkowski length of lattice polygons and show that the Minkowski length of a lattice triangle coincides with its lattice diameter

Criteria for Strict Monotonicity of the Mixed Volume of Convex Polytopes

Let P1,..., Pn and Q1,...,Qn be convex polytopes in Rn such that Pi is a proper subset of Qi . It is well-known that the mixed volume has the monotonicity property: V (P1,...,Pn) is less than or equal to V (Q1,...,Qn) . We give two criteria for when this inequality is strict in terms of essential collections of faces as well as mixed polyhedral subdivisions. This geometric result allows us to characterize sparse polynomial systems with Newton polytopes P1,..., Pn whose number of isolated solutions equals the normalized volume of the convex hull of P1 U...U Pn . In addition, we obtain an analog of Cramer\u27s rule for sparse polynomial systems