Lattice polytopes with the minimal volume

Abstract

Let $\mathcal{P}\subset {\mathbb{R}}^d$ be a lattice polytope of dimension $d$. Let $b(\mathcal{P})$ denote the number of lattice points belonging to the boundary of $\mathcal{P}$ and $c(\mathcal{P})$ that to the interior of $\mathcal{P}$. It follows from the lower bound theorem of Ehrhart polynomials that, when $c>0$, \[ {\rm vol}(\mathcal{P}) \geq (d \cdot c(\mathcal{P}) + (d-1) \cdot b(\mathcal{P}) - d^2 + 2)/d!, \] where $\mathrm{vol}(\mathcal{P})$ is the (Lebesgue) volume of $\mathcal{P}$. Pick's formula guarantees that, when $d=2$, the above inequality is an equality. In the present paper several classes of lattice polytopes for which the equality here holds will be presented.