arXiv subjects

Matthias Beck

Publications and source records attributed to Matthias Beck.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Binomial Inequalities for Chromatic, Flow, and Tension Polynomials

A famous and wide-open problem, going back to at least the early 1970's, concerns the classification of chromatic polynomials of graphs. Toward this classification problem, one may ask for necessary inequalities among the coefficients of a chromatic polynomial, and we contribute such inequalities when a chromatic polynomial $χ_G(n) = χ^*_0 \binom {n+d} d + χ^*_1 \binom {n+d-1} d + \dots + χ^*_d \binom n d$ is written in terms of a binomial-coefficient basis. For example, we show that $χ^*_{ j } \le χ^*_{ d-j }$, for $0 \le j \le \frac{ d }{ 2 }$. Similar results hold for flow and tension polynomials enumerating either modular or integral nowhere-zero flows/tensions of a graph. Our theorems follow from connections among chromatic, flow, tension, and order polynomials, as well as Ehrhart polynomials of lattice polytopes that admit unimodular triangulations. Our results use Ehrhart inequalities due to Athanasiadis and Stapledon and are related to recent work by Hersh--Swartz and Breuer--Dall, where inequalities similar to some of ours were derived using algebraic-combinatorial methods.

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arXiv2021

Decompositions of Ehrhart $h^*$-polynomials for rational polytopes

The Ehrhart quasipolynomial of a rational polytope $P$ encodes the number of integer lattice points in dilates of $P$, and the $h^*$-polynomial of $P$ is the numerator of the accompanying generating function. We provide two decomposition formulas for the $h^*$-polynomial of a rational polytope. The first decomposition generalizes a theorem of Betke and McMullen for lattice polytopes. We use our rational Betke--McMullen formula to provide a novel proof of Stanley's Monotonicity Theorem for the $h^*$-polynomial of a rational polytope. The second decomposition generalizes a result of Stapledon, which we use to provide rational extensions of the Stanley and Hibi inequalities satisfied by the coefficients of the $h^*$-polynomial for lattice polytopes. Lastly, we apply our results to rational polytopes containing the origin whose duals are lattice polytopes.

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arXiv2020

The Arithmetic of Coxeter Permutahedra

Ehrhart theory measures a polytope P discretely by counting the lattice points inside its dilates P, 2P, 3P, .... We compute the Ehrhart quasipolynomials of the standard Coxeter permutahedra for the classical Coxeter groups, expressing them in terms of the Lambert W function. A central tool is a description of the Ehrhart theory of a rational translate of an integer zonotope.

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arXiv2019

Weighted lattice point sums in lattice polytopes, unifying Dehn--Sommerville and Ehrhart--Macdonald

Let $V$ be a real vector space of dimension $n$ and let $M\subset V$ be a lattice. Let $P\subset V$ be an $n$-dimensional polytope with vertices in $M$, and let $φ\colon V\rightarrow \CC $ be a homogeneous polynomial function of degree $d$ (i.e., an element of $\Sym^{d} (V^{*})$). For $q\in \ZZ_{>0}$ and any face $F$ of $P$, let $D_{φ,F} (q)$ be the sum of $φ$ over the lattice points in the dilate $qF$. We define a generating function $G_φ(q,y) \in \QQ [q] [y]$ packaging together the various $D_{φ,F} (q)$, and show that it satisfies a functional equation that simultaneously generalizes Ehrhart--Macdonald reciprocity and the Dehn--Sommerville relations. When $P$ is a simple lattice polytope (i.e., each vertex meets $n$ edges), we show how $G_φ$ can be computed using an analogue of Brion--Vergne's Euler--Maclaurin summation formula.

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arXiv2019

Frobenius Coin-Exchange Generating Functions

We study variants of the \emph{Frobenius coin-exchange problem}: given $n$ positive relatively prime parameters, what is the largest integer that cannot be represented as a nonnegative integral linear combination of the given integers? This problem and its siblings can be understood through generating functions with 0/1 coefficients according to whether or not an integer is representable. In the 2-parameter case, this generating function has an elegant closed form, from which many corollaries follow, including a formula for the Frobenius problem. We establish a similar closed form for the generating function indicating all integers with exactly $k$ representations, with similar wide-ranging corollaries.

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arXiv2019

Lonely Runner Polyhedra

We study the \emph{Lonely Runner Conjecture}, conceived by Jörg M.~Wills in the 1960's: Given positive integers $n_1, n_2, \dots, n_k$, there exists a positive real number $t$ such that for all $1 \le j \le k$ the distance of $t \, n_j$ to the nearest integer is at least $\frac{ 1 }{ k+1 }$. Continuing a view-obstruction approach by Cusick and recent work by Henze and Malikiosis, our goal is to promote a polyhedral \emph{ansatz} to the Lonely Runner Conjecture. Our results include geometric proofs of some folklore results that are only implicit in the existing literature, a new family of affirmative instances defined by the parities of the speeds, and geometrically motivated conjectures whose resolution would shed further light on the Lonely Runner Conjecture.

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arXiv2019

Bivariate Order Polynomials

Motivated by Dohmen-Pönitz-Tittmann's bivariate chromatic polynomial $χ_G(x,y)$, which counts all $x$-colorings of a graph $G$ such that adjacent vertices get different colors if they are $\le y$, we introduce a bivarate version of Stanley's order polynomial, which counts order preserving maps from a given poset to a chain. Our results include decomposition formulas in terms of linear extensions, a combinatorial reciprocity theorem, and connections to bivariate chromatic polynomials.

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arXiv2018

Visible-spanning flat supercontinuum for astronomical applications

We demonstrate a broad, flat, visible supercontinuum spectrum that is generated by a dispersion-engineered tapered photonic crystal fiber pumped by a 1 GHz repetition rate turn-key Ti:sapphire laser outputting $\sim$ 30 fs pulses at 800 nm. At a pulse energy of 100 pJ, we obtain an output spectrum that is flat to within 3 dB over the range 490-690 nm with a blue tail extending below 450 nm. The mode-locked laser combined with the photonic crystal fiber forms a simple visible frequency comb system that is extremely well-suited to the precise calibration of astrophysical spectrographs, among other applications.

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arXiv2018

Smooth centrally symmetric polytopes in dimension 3 are IDP

In 1997 Oda conjectured that every smooth lattice polytope has the integer decomposition property. We prove Oda's conjecture for centrally symmetric $3$-dimensional polytopes, by showing they are covered by lattice parallelepipeds and unimodular simplices.

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arXiv2017

Astro-comb calibrator and spectrograph characterization using a turn-key laser frequency comb

Using a turn-key Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser frequency comb, an off-the-shelf supercontinuum device, and Fabry-Perot mode filters, we report the generation of a 16 GHz frequency comb spanning a 90 nm band about a center wavelength of 566 nm. The light from this astro-comb is used to calibrate the HARPS-N astrophysical spectrograph for precision radial velocity measurements. The comb-calibrated spectrograph achieves a stability of $\sim$ 1 cm/s within half an hour of averaging time. We also use the astro-comb as a reference for measurements of solar spectra obtained with a compact telescope, and as a tool to study intrapixel sensitivity variations on the CCD of the spectrograph.

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arXiv2017

Generating functions and triangulations for lecture hall cones

We investigate the arithmetic-geometric structure of the lecture hall cone \[ L_n \ := \ \left\{λ\in \mathbb{R}^n: \, 0\leq \frac{λ_1}{1}\leq \frac{λ_2}{2}\leq \frac{λ_3}{3}\leq \cdots \leq \frac{λ_n}{n}\right\} . \] We show that $L_n$ is isomorphic to the cone over the lattice pyramid of a reflexive simplex whose Ehrhart $h^*$-polynomial is given by the $(n-1)$st Eulerian polynomial, and prove that lecture hall cones admit regular, flag, unimodular triangulations. After explicitly describing the Hilbert basis for $L_n$, we conclude with observations and a conjecture regarding the structure of unimodular triangulations of $L_n$, including connections between enumerative and algebraic properties of $L_n$ and cones over unit cubes.

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arXiv2017

$h^\ast$-polynomials of zonotopes

The Ehrhart polynomial of a lattice polytope $P$ encodes information about the number of integer lattice points in positive integral dilates of $P$. The $h^\ast$-polynomial of $P$ is the numerator polynomial of the generating function of its Ehrhart polynomial. A zonotope is any projection of a higher dimensional cube. We give a combinatorial description of the $h^\ast$-polynomial of a lattice zonotope in terms of refined descent statistics of permutations and prove that the $h^\ast$-polynomial of every lattice zonotope has only real roots and therefore unimodal coefficients. Furthermore, we present a closed formula for the $h^\ast$-polynomial of a zonotope in matroidal terms which is analogous to a result by Stanley (1991) on the Ehrhart polynomial. Our results hold not only for $h^\ast$-polynomials but carry over to general combinatorial positive valuations. Moreover, we give a complete description of the convex hull of all $h^\ast$-polynomials of zonotopes in a given dimension: it is a simplicial cone spanned by refined Eulerian polynomials.

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arXiv2017

Reciprocity Theorems for Bettin--Conrey Sums

Recent work of Bettin and Conrey on the period functions of Eisenstein series naturally gave rise to the Dedekind-like sum \[ c_{a}\left(\frac{h}{k}\right) \ = \ k^{a}\sum_{m=1}^{k-1}\cot\left(\frac{πmh}{k}\right)ζ\left(-a,\frac{m}{k}\right), \] where $a\in\mathbb{C}$, $h$ and $k$ are positive coprime integers, and $ζ(a,x)$ denotes the Hurwitz zeta function. We derive a new reciprocity theorem for these Bettin--Conrey sums, which in the case of an odd negative integer $a$ can be explicitly given in terms of Bernoulli numbers. This, in turn, implies explicit formulas for the period functions appearing in Bettin--Conrey's work. We study generalizations of Bettin--Conrey sums involving zeta derivatives and multiple cotangent factors and relate these to special values of the Estermann zeta function.

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arXiv2015

Partially magic labelings and the Antimagic Graph Conjecture

The Antimagic Graph Conjecture asserts that every connected graph $G = (V, E)$ except $K_2$ admits an edge labeling such that each label $1, 2, \dots, |E|$ is used exactly once and the sums of the labels on all edges incident to a given vertex are distinct. On the other extreme, an edge labeling is magic if the sums of the labels on all edges incident to each vertex are the same. In this paper we approach antimagic labelings by introducing partially magic labelings, where "magic occurs'' just in a subset of $V$. We generalize Stanley's theorem about the magic graph labeling counting function to the associated counting function of partially magic labelings and prove that it is a quasi-polynomial of period at most $2$. This allows us to introduce weak antimagic labelings (for which repetition is allowed), and we show that every bipartite graph satisfies a weakened version of the Antimagic Graph Conjecture.

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arXiv2015

Stanley's Major Contributions to Ehrhart Theory

This expository paper features a few highlights of Richard Stanley's extensive work in Ehrhart theory, the study of integer-point enumeration in rational polyhedra. We include results from the recent literature building on Stanley's work, as well as several open problems.

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arXiv2015

Positivity theorems for solid-angle polynomials

For a lattice polytope P, define A_P(t) as the sum of the solid angles of all the integer points in the dilate tP. Ehrhart and Macdonald proved that A_P(t) is a polynomial in the positive integer variable t. We study the numerator polynomial of the solid-angle series sum_{t >= 0} A_P(t) z^t. In particular, we examine nonnegativity of its coefficients, monotonicity and unimodality questions, and study extremal behavior of the sum of solid angles at vertices of simplices. Some of our results extend to more general valuations.

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arXiv2015

Partitions with fixed differences between largest and smallest parts

We study the number $p(n,t)$ of partitions of $n$ with difference $t$ between largest and smallest parts. Our main result is an explicit formula for the generating function $P_t(q) := \sum_{n \ge 1} p(n,t) \, q^n$. Somewhat surprisingly, $P_t(q)$ is a rational function for $t>1$; equivalently, $p(n,t)$ is a quasipolynomial in $n$ for fixed $t>1$. Our result generalizes to partitions with an arbitrary number of specified distances.

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arXiv2014

The Chromatic Polynomials of Signed Petersen Graphs

Zaslavsky proved in 2012 that, up to switching isomorphism, there are six different signed Petersen graphs and that they could be told apart by their chromatic polynomials, by showing that the latter give distinct results when evaluated at 3. He conjectured that the six different signed Petersen graphs also have distinct zero-free chromatic polynomials, and that both types of chromatic polynomials have distinct evaluations at \emph{any} positive integer. We developed and executed a computer program (running in {\tt SAGE}) that efficiently determines the number of proper $k$-colorings for a given signed graph; our computations for the signed Petersen graphs confirm Zaslavsky's conjecture. We also computed the chromatic polynomials of all signed complete graphs with up to five vertices.

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