In tropical algebraic geometry, the solution sets of polynomial equations are piecewise-linear. We introduce the tropical variety of a polynomial ideal, and we identify it with a polyhedral subcomplex of the Grobner fan. The tropical Grassmannian arises in this manner from the ideal of quadratic Plucker relations. It is shown to parametrize all tropical linear spaces. Lines in tropical projective space are trees, and their tropical Grassmannian G_{2,n} equals the space of phylogenetic trees studied by Billera, Holmes and Vogtmann. Higher Grassmannians offer a natural generalization of the space of trees. Their facets correspond to binomial initial ideals of the Plucker ideal. The tropical Grassmannian G_{3,6} is a simplicial complex glued from 1035 tetrahedra.
The Dressian and the tropical Grassmannian parameterize abstract and realizable tropical linear spaces; but in general, the Dressian is much larger than the tropical Grassmannian. There are natural positive notions of both of these spaces -- the positive Dressian, and the positive tropical Grassmannian (which we introduced roughly fifteen years ago) -- so it is natural to ask how these two positive spaces compare. In this paper we show that the positive Dressian equals the positive tropical Grassmannian. Using the connection between the positive Dressian and regular positroidal subdivisions of…
Over a field of characteristic $0$, we prove that for each $r \geq 0$ there exists a constant $C(r)$ so that the prime ideal of the $r$th secant variety of any Plücker-embedded Grassmannian ${\bf Gr}(d,n)$ is generated by polynomials of degree at most $C(r)$, where $C(r)$ is independent of $d$ and $n$. This bounded generation ultimately reduces to proving a poset is noetherian, we develop a new method to do this. We then translate the structure we develop to the language of functor categories to prove the $i$th syzygy module of the coordinate ring of the $r$th secant variety of any Plücker-emb…
In this article, we present a massively parallel framework for computing tropicalizations of algebraic varieties which can make use of finite symmetries. We compute the tropical Grassmannian TGr$_0(3,8)$, and show that it refines the $15$-dimensional skeleton of the Dressian Dr$(3,8)$ with the exception of $23$ special cones for which we construct explicit obstructions to the realizability of their tropical linear spaces. Moreover, we propose algorithms for identifying maximal-dimensional tropical cones which belong to the positive tropicalization. These algorithms exploit symmetries of the tr…
Tropical geometry and the theory of Newton-Okounkov bodies are two methods which produce toric degenerations of an irreducible complex projective variety. Kaveh-Manon showed that the two are related. We give geometric maps between the Newton-Okounkov bodies corresponding to two adjacent maximal-dimensional prime cones in the tropicalization of $X$. Under a technical condition, we produce a natural "algebraic wall-crossing" map on the underlying value semigroups (of the corresponding valuations). In the case of the tropical Grassmannian $Gr(2,m)$, we prove that the algebraic wall-crossing map i…
We study the algebraic combinatorics of monomial degenerations of Plücker forms which is governed by matching fields in the sense of Sturmfels and Zelevinsky. We provide a necessary condition for a matching field to yield a Khovanskii basis of the Plücker algebra for $3$-planes in $n$-space. When the ideal associated to the matching field is quadratically generated this condition is both necessary and sufficient. Finally, we describe a family of matching fields, called $2$-block diagonal, whose ideals are quadratically generated. These matching fields produce a new family of toric degeneration…
We construct a family of compactifications of the affine cone of the Grassmannian variety of 2-planes. We show that both the tropical variety of the Plücker ideal and familiar valuations associated to the construction of Newton-Okounkov bodies for the Grassmannian variety can be recovered from these compactifications. In this way, we unite various perspectives for constructing toric degenerations of flag varieties.
In 2004 Pachter and Speyer introduced the higher dissimilarity maps for phylogenetic trees and asked two important questions about their relation to the tropical Grassmannian. Multiple authors, using independent methods, answered affirmatively the first of these questions, showing that dissimilarity vectors lie on the tropical Grassmannian, but the second question, whether the set of dissimilarity vectors forms a tropical subvariety, remained opened. We resolve this question by showing that the tropical balancing condition fails. However, by replacing the definition of the dissimilarity map wi…
We introduce iterated sequences for Grassmannians, a new class of Fang-Fourier-Littelmanns' birational sequences and explain how they give rise to points in $\text{trop}(\text{Gr}(k,\mathbb C^n))$, Speyer-Sturmfels' tropical Grassmannian. For $\text{Gr}(2,\mathbb C^n)$ we show that the associated valuations induce toric degenerations. We describe recursively the vertices of the corresponding Newton--Okounkov polytopes, which are particular vertices of a hypercube and hence integral. We show further that every toric degeneration of $\text{Gr}(2,\mathbb C^{n})$ constructed using the tropical Gra…
Mustafin varieties are flat degenerations of projective spaces, induced by a choice of an $n-$tuple of lattices in a vector space over a non-archimedean field. They were introduced by Mustafin in the 70s in order to generalise Mumford's groundbreaking work on the unformisation of curves to higher dimension. These varieties have a rich combinatorial structure as can be seen in pioneering work of Cartwright, Häbich, Sturmfels and Werner. In this paper, we introduce a new approach to Mustafin varieties in terms of images of rational maps, which were studied by Li. Applying tropical intersection t…
Several moduli spaces parametrizing linear subspaces of the projective space are cut out by linear and quadratic equations in their natural embedding: Grassmannians, Flag varieties, and Schubert varieties. The goal of this paper is to prove that a similar statement holds when one replaces linear subspaces with algebraic subschemes of the projective space. We exhibit equations of degree 1 and 2 that define schematically the Hilbert schemes $\mathbf{Hilb}^{p}_{\mathbb P^n}$ for all (possibly nonconstant) Hilbert polynomials $p$. The equations are reminiscent of the Plücker relations on the Grass…
The study of the moment map from the Grassmannian to the hypersimplex, and the relation between torus orbits and matroid polytopes, dates back to the foundational 1987 work of Gelfand-Goresky-MacPherson-Serganova. On the other hand, the amplituhedron is a very new object, defined by Arkani-Hamed-Trnka in connection with scattering amplitudes in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory. In this paper we discover a striking duality between the moment map $μ:Gr^{\geq0}_{k+1,n}\toΔ_{k+1,n}$ from the positive Grassmannian $Gr^{\geq0}_{k+1,n}$ to the hypersimplex, and the amplituhedron map $\tilde{Z}…
A typical linear projection of the Grassmannian in its Plucker embedding is injective, unless its image is a projective space. A notable exception are self-adjoint linear projections, which have even degree. We consider linear projections of Gr_3(C^6) with low-dimensional centers of projection. When the center has dimension less than five, we show that the projection has degree 1. When the center has dimension five and the projection has degree greater than 1, we show that it is self-adjoint.
We construct closed immersions from initial degenerations of $\operatorname*{Gr}_{0}(d,n)$---the open cell in the Grassmannian $\operatorname*{Gr}(d,n)$ given by the nonvanishing of all Plücker coordinates---to limits of thin Schubert cells associated to diagrams induced by the face poset of the corresponding tropical linear space. These are isomorphisms when $(d,n)$ equals $(2,n)$, $(3,6)$ and $(3,7)$. As an application we prove $\operatorname*{Gr}_0(3,7)$ is schön, and the Chow quotient of $\operatorname*{Gr}(3,7)$ by the maximal torus in $ \operatorname*{PGL}(7)$ is the log canonical compac…
We introduce a decorated configuration space $\mathscr{C}\!{\rm onf}_n^\times(a)$ with a potential function $\mathcal{W}$. We prove the cluster duality conjecture of Fock-Goncharov for Grassmannians, that is, the tropicalization of $\big(\mathscr{C}\!{\rm onf}_n^\times(a), \mathcal{W}\big)$ canonically parametrizes a linear basis of the homogeneous coordinate ring of the Grassmannian $\operatorname{Gr}_a(n)$ with respect to the Plücker embedding. We prove that $\big(\mathscr{C}\!{\rm onf}_n^\times(a), \mathcal{W}\big)$ is equivalent to the mirror Landau-Ginzburg model of the Grassmannian consi…
In a recent paper Baker and Bowler introduced matroids over hyperfields, offering a common generalization of matroids, oriented matroids, and linear subspaces of based vector spaces. This paper introduces the notion of a topological hyperfield and explores the generalization of Grassmannians and realization spaces to this context, particularly in relating the (hyper)fields R and C to hyperfields arising in matroid theory and in tropical geometry.
We consider the Grassmannian X of (n-k)-dimensional subspaces of an n-dimensional complex vector space. We describe a `mirror dual' Landau-Ginzburg model for X consisting of the complement of a particular anti-canonical divisor in a Langlands dual Grassmannian together with a superpotential expressed succinctly in terms of Plücker coordinates. First of all, we show this Landau-Ginzburg model to be isomorphic to the one proposed by the second author. Secondly we show it to be a partial compactification of the Landau-Ginzburg model defined in the 1990s by Eguchi, Hori, and Xiong. Finally we cons…
We consider Fano sevenfolds $Y$ obtained by intersecting the Grassmannian $\hbox{Gr}(3,6)$ with a codimension 2 linear subspace (with respect to the Plücker embedding). We prove that the motive of $Y$ is Kimura finite-dimensional. We also prove the generalized Hodge conjecture for all powers of $Y$.
Let $V$ be the weighted projective variety defined by a weighted homogeneous ideal $J$ and $C$ a maximal cone in the Gröbner fan of $J$ with $m$ rays. We construct a flat family over $\mathbb A^m$ that assembles the Gröbner degenerations of $V$ associated with all faces of $C$. This is a multi-parameter generalization of the classical one-parameter Gröbner degeneration associated to a weight. We explain how our family can be constructed from Kaveh-Manon's recent work on the classification of toric flat families over toric varieties: it is the pull-back of a toric family defined by a Rees algeb…
