Lattice multi-polygons

Abstract

We discuss generalizations of some results on lattice polygons to certain piecewise linear loops which may have a self-intersection but have vertices in the lattice $\mathbb{Z}^2$. We first prove a formula on the rotation number of a unimodular sequence in $\mathbb{Z}^2$. This formula implies the generalized twelve-point theorem in [12]. We then introduce the notion of lattice multi-polygons which is a generalization of lattice polygons, state the generalized Pick's formula and discuss the classification of Ehrhart polynomials of lattice multi-polygons and also of several natural subfamilies of lattice multi-polygons.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, Kyoto J. Math. to appea