Combinatorial duality for Poincar\'e series, polytopes and invariants of plumbed 3-manifolds

Abstract

Assume that the link of a complex normal surface singularity is a rational homology sphere. Then its Seiberg-Witten invariant can be computed as the `periodic constant' of the topological multivariable Poincar\'e series (zeta function). This involves a complicated regularization procedure (via quasipolynomials measuring the asymptotic behaviour of the coefficients). We show that the (a Gorenstein type) symmetry of the zeta function combined with Ehrhart-Macdonald-Stanley reciprocity (of Ehrhart theory of polytopes) provide a simple expression for the periodic constant. Using these dualities we also find a multivariable polynomial generalization of the Seiberg-Witten invariant, and we compute it in terms of lattice points of certain polytopes. All these invariants are also determined via lattice point counting, in this way we establish a completely general topological analogue of formulae of Khovanskii and Morales valid for singularities with non-degenerate Newton principal part.