The $h$-Vector of a Gorenstein Toric Ring of a Compressed Polytope

Source abstract

A compressed polytope is an integral convex polytope all of whose pulling triangulations are unimodular. A $(q - 1)$-simplex $\Sigma$ each of whose vertices is a vertex of a convex polytope ${\cal P}$ is said to be a special simplex in ${\cal P}$ if each facet of ${\cal P}$ contains exactly $q - 1$ of the vertices of $\Sigma$. It will be proved that there is a special simplex in a compressed polytope ${\cal P}$ if (and only if) its toric ring $K[{\cal P}]$ is Gorenstein. In consequence it follows that the $h$-vector of a Gorenstein toric ring $K[{\cal P}]$ is unimodal if ${\cal P}$ is compressed.