Splines, lattice points, and arithmetic matroids

Abstract

Let $X$ be a $(d\times N)$-matrix. We consider the variable polytope ${\Pi }_X(u)=\{w\ge 0:Xw=u\}$. It is known that the function $T_X$ that assigns to a parameter $u\in {\mathbb{R}}^d$ the volume of the polytope ${\Pi }_X(u)$ is piecewise polynomial. The Brion-Vergne formula implies that the number of lattice points in ${\Pi }_X(u)$ can be obtained by applying a certain differential operator to the function $T_X$. In this article we slightly improve the Brion-Vergne formula and we study two spaces of differential operators that arise in this context: the space of relevant differential operators (i.e. operators that do not annihilate $T_X$) and the space of nice differential operators (i.e. operators that leave $T_X$ continuous). These two spaces are finite-dimensional homogeneous vector spaces and their Hilbert series are evaluations of the Tutte polynomial of the arithmetic matroid defined by the matrix $X$. They are closely related to the $\mathcal{P}$-spaces studied by Ardila-Postnikov and Holtz-Ron in the context of zonotopal algebra and power ideals.

43 pages, 4 figures, minor corrections

Cited by in corpus (5)

• A convolution formula for Tutte polynomials of arithmetic matroids and other combinatorial structures
• Representations of weakly multiplicative arithmetic matroids are unique
• Colorings and flows on CW complexes, Tutte quasi-polynomials and arithmetic matroids
• Computing the poset of layers of a toric arrangement
• On powers of Plücker coordinates and representability of arithmetic matroids