Abstract
Given a polytope σ ⊂ ℝ m , its characteristic distribution δσ generates a D-module which we call the characteristic D-module of σ and denote by M σ. More generally, the characteristic distributions of a cell complex K with polyhedral cells generate a D-module M K , which we call the characteristic D-module of the cell complex. We prove various basic properties of M K , and show that under mild topological conditions on K, the D-module theoretic direct image of M K coincides with the module generated by the B-splines associated to the cells of K (considered as distributions). We also give techniques for computing D-annihilator ideals of polytopes.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am grateful to my advisor Rikard B\ootgvad, for all the usual reasons; I would also like to thank Rolf Källström and Jan-Erik Björk for helpful discussions.
Notes
Communicated by V. Walther.