Hilbert Polynomials of Calabi Yau Hypersurfaces in Toric Varieties and Lattice Points in Polytope Boundaries

Abstract: We show that the Hilbert polynomial of a Calabi-Yau hypersurface $Z$ in a smooth toric variety $M$ associated to a convex polytope $Δ$ is given by a lattice point count in the polytope boundary $\partial Δ,$ just as the Hilbert polynomial of $M$ is known to be given by a lattice point count in the convex polytope $Δ.$ Our main tool is a computation of the Euler class in $K$-theory of the normal line bundle to the hypersurface $Z,$ in terms of the Euler classes of the divisors corresponding to the facets of the moment polytope. We observe a remarkable parallel between our expression for the Euler class and the inclusion-exclusion principle in combinatorics. To obtain our result we combine these facts with the known relation between lattice point counts in the facets of $Δ$ and the Hilbert polynomials of the smooth toric varieties corresponding to these facets.