Mixed Volumes of Hypersimplices

Abstract

In this paper we consider mixed volumes of combinations of hypersimplices. These numbers, called "mixed Eulerian numbers", were first considered by A. Postnikov and were shown to satisfy many properties related to Eulerian numbers, Catalan numbers, binomial coefficients, etc. We give a general combinatorial interpretation for mixed Eulerian numbers and prove the above properties combinatorially. In particular, we show that each mixed Eulerian number enumerates a certain set of permutations in $S_n$. We also prove several new properties of mixed Eulerian numbers using our methods. Finally, we consider a type B analogue of mixed Eulerian numbers and give an analogous combinatorial interpretation for these numbers.