Eigenpolytope Universality and Graphical Designs

Abstract: We show that the eigenpolytopes of graphs are universal in the sense that every polytope, up to affine equivalence, appears as the eigenpolytope of some positively weighted graph. We next extend the theory of graphical designs, which are quadrature rules for graphs, to positively weighted graphs. Through Gale duality for polytopes, we show a bijection between graphical designs and the faces of eigenpolytopes. This bijection proves the existence of graphical designs with positive quadrature weights, and upper bounds the size of a minimal graphical design. Connecting this bijection with the universality of eigenpolytopes, we establish three complexity results: it is strongly NP-complete to determine if there is a graphical design smaller than the mentioned upper bound, it is NP-hard to find a smallest graphical design, and it is #P-complete to count the number of minimal graphical designs.