Building on our earlier work on toric residues and reduction, we give a proof for the mixed toric residue conejecture of Batyrev and Materov. We simplify and streamline our technique of tropical degenerations, which allows one to interpolate between two localization principles: one appearing in the intersection theory toric quotients and the other in the calculus of toric residues. This quickly leads to the proof of the conjecture, which gives a closed form for the summation of a generating series whose coefficients are certain variants of the "numbers" of rational curves on toric complete intersection Calabi-Yau manifolds.
In this survey, we discuss linear series on tropical curves and their relation to classical algebraic geometry, describe the main techniques of the subject, and survey some of the recent major developments in the field, with an emphasis on applications to problems in Brill-Noether theory and arithmetic geometry.
We use the motivic obstruction to stable rationality introduced by Shinder and the first-named author to establish several new classes of stably irrational hypersurfaces and complete intersections. In particular, we show that very general quartic fivefolds and complete intersections of a quadric and a cubic in $\mathbb P^6$ are stably irrational. An important new ingredient is the use of tropical degeneration techniques.
Given a smooth Mori dream space $X$ we construct a model dominating all the small $\mathbb{Q}$-factorial modifications via tropicalization. This construction allows us to recover a Minkowski basis for the Newton-Okounkov bodies of divisors on $X$ and hence the movable cone of $X$. The existence of such basis allows us to prove the polyhedrality of the global Newton-Okounkov body and the existence of toric degenerations.
We show that the counting of rational curves on a complete toric variety that are in general position to the toric prime divisors coincides with the counting of certain tropical curves. The proof is algebraic-geometric and relies on degeneration techniques and log deformation theory. This generalizes results of Mikhalkin obtained by different methods in the surface case to arbitrary dimensions.
We study algebraic, combinatorial and geometric aspects of weighted PBW-type degenerations of (partial) flag varieties in type $A$. These degenerations are labeled by degree functions lying in an explicitly defined polyhedral cone, which can be identified with a maximal cone in the tropical flag variety. Varying the degree function in the cone, we recover, for example, the classical flag variety, its abelian PBW degeneration, some of its linear degenerations and a particular toric degeneration.
A degeneration of a singular curve on a toric surface, called a tropicalization, was constructed by E. Shustin. He classified the degeneration of 1-cuspidal curves using polyhedral complexes called tropical curves. In this paper, we define a tropical version of a 1-tacnodal curve, that is, a curve having exactly one singular point whose topological type is $A_3$, and by applying the tropicalization method, we classify tropical curves which correspond to 1-tacnodal curves.
First, we define phase tropical hypersurfaces in terms of a degeneration data of smooth complex algebraic hypersurfaces in $(\mathbb{C}^*)^n$. Next, we prove that complex hyperplanes are diffeomorphic to their degeneration called phase tropical hyperplanes. More generally, using Mikhalkin's decomposition into pairs-of-pants of smooth algebraic hypersurfaces, we show that phase tropical hypersurfaces with smooth tropicalization, possess naturally a smooth differentiable structure. Moreover, we prove that phase tropical hypersurfaces possess a natural symplectic structure.
In this paper, we give a tropical method for computing Gromov-Witten type invariants of Fano manifolds of special type. This method applies to those Fano manifolds which admit toric degenerations to toric Fano varieties with singularities allowing small resolutions. Examples include (generalized) flag manifolds of type A, and some moduli space of rank two bundles on a genus two curve.
A net is a special configuration of lines and points in the projective plane. There are certain restrictions on the number of its lines and points. We proved that there cannot be any (4,4) nets in $\mathbb{C}P^2$. In order to show this, we use tropical algebraic geometry. We tropicalize the hypothetical net and show that there cannot be such a configuration in $\mathbb{C}P^2$.
In this thesis we study toric degenerations of projective varieties. We compare different constructions to understand how and why they are related as s first step towards developing a global framework. In focus are toric degenerations obtained from representation theory, tropical geometry and cluster algebras. Often those rely on valuations and the theory of Newton-Okounkov bodies. Toric degenerations can be seen as a combinatorial shadow of the original objects. The goal is therefore to understand why the different theories are so closely related, by understanding the toric degenerations they…
We introduce tropical complexes, as an enrichment of the dual complex of a degeneration with additional data from non-transverse intersection numbers. We define cycles, divisors, and linear equivalence on tropical complexes, analogous both to the corresponding theories on algebraic varieties and to previous work on graphs and abstract tropical curves. In addition, we establish conditions for the divisor-curve intersection numbers on a tropical complex to agree with the generic fiber of a degeneration.
We construct polyhedral families of valuations on the branching algebra of a morphism of reductive groups. This establishes a connection between the combinatorial rules for studying a branching problem and the tropical geometry of the branching algebra. In the special case when the branching problem comes from the inclusion of a Levi subgroup or a diagonal subgroup, we use the dual canonical basis of Lusztig and Kashiwara to build toric deformations of the branching algebra.
Using ideas from the theory of tropical curves and degeneration, we prove that any Fano hypersurface (and more generally Fano complete intersections) is swept by at most quadratic rational curves.
We find restrictions on the topology of tropical varieties that arise from a certain natural class of varieties. We develop a theory of tropical degenerations that is a nonconstant coefficient analogue of Tevelev's theory of tropical compactifications, and use it to construct normal crossings degenerations of a subvariety X of a torus, under mild hypotheses on X. These degenerations allow us to construct a natural, "multiplicity-free" parameterization of Trop(X) by a topological space Γ_X. We give a geometric interpretation of the cohomology of Γ_X in terms of the action of a monodromy operato…
We construct motivic invariants of a subvariety of an algebraic torus from its tropicalization and initial degenerations. More specifically, we introduce an invariant of a compactification of such a variety called the "tropical motivic nearby fiber." This invariant specializes in the schon case to the Hodge-Deligne polynomial of the limit mixed Hodge structure of a corresponding degeneration. We give purely combinatorial expressions for this Hodge-Deligne polynomial in the cases of schon hypersurfaces and smooth tropical varieties. We also deduce a formula for the Euler characteristic of a gen…
We study the stationary descendant Gromov-Witten theory of toric surfaces by combining and extending a range of techniques - tropical curves, floor diagrams, and Fock spaces. A correspondence theorem is established between tropical curves and descendant invariants on toric surfaces using maximal toric degenerations. An intermediate degeneration is then shown to give rise to floor diagrams, giving a geometric interpretation of this well-known bookkeeping tool in tropical geometry. In the process, we extend floor diagram techniques to include descendants in arbitrary genus. These floor diagrams …
We give a simple expression for the integral of the canonical holomorphic volume form in degenerating families of varieties constructed from wall structures and with central fiber a union of toric varieties. The cycles to integrate over are constructed from tropical 1-cycles in the intersection complex of the central fiber. One application is a proof that the mirror map for the canonical formal families of Calabi-Yau varieties constructed by Gross and the second author is trivial. We also show that these families are the completion of an analytic family, without reparametrization, and that the…
These are notes for a series of five lectures on "Moduli and degenerations of algebraic curves via tropical geometry" delivered at the CIMPA-CIMAT-ICTP School on Moduli of Curves, February 29-March 4, 2016 in Guanajuato, Mexico.
Tropical geometry is a degeneration of classical geometry which loose the property of unique factorization for polynomials. In this paper we explore a structure that is known to be a semi-degeneration between the classical algebra and the tropical algebra, and show that unique factorization fails in several variables due to geometric reasons, not just algebraic. We also show that unique factorization does hold for a certain interesting subset of polynomials.
We compute toric degenerations arising from the tropicalization of the full flag varieties $\mathcal{F}\ell_4$ and $\mathcal{F}\ell_5$ embedded in a product of Grassmannians. For $\mathcal{F}\ell_4$ and $\mathcal{F}\ell_5$ we compare toric degenerations arising from string polytopes and the FFLV polytope with those obtained from the tropicalization of the flag varieties. We also present a general procedure to find toric degenerations in the cases where the initial ideal arising from a cone of the tropicalization of a variety is not prime.
Given a complete real-valued field $k$ of residue characteristic zero, we study properties of a meromorphic $q$-differential form $ξ$ (a section of $Ω_X^{\otimes q}$) on a smooth proper $k$-analytic curve $X$. In particular, we associate to $(X,ξ)$ a natural tropical reduction datum combining tropical-geometric data over the value group of $|k^\times|$ and algebro-geometric reduction data over the residue field $\widetilde{k}$. We show that this datum satisfies natural compatibility conditions, and prove a lifting theorem asserting that any compatible tropical reduction datum lifts to an actua…
We give an introduction to Tropical Geometry and prove some results in Tropical Intersection Theory. The first part of this paper is an introduction to tropical geometry aimed at researchers in Algebraic Geometry from the point of view of degenerations of varieties using projective not-necessarily-normal toric varieties. The second part is a foundational account of tropical intersection theory with proofs of some new theorems relating it to classical intersection theory. Revised version includes many corrections, more examples, and improved exposition.
Using degeneration techniques, we prove the correspondence of tropical curve counts and log Gromov-Witten invariants with general incidence and psi-class conditions in toric varieties for genus zero curves and all non-superabundant higher-genus situations. We also relate the log invariants to the ordinary ones, in particular explaining the appearance of negative multiplicities in the descendant correspondence result of Mark Gross.
We study the relation between the integer tropical points of a cluster variety (satisfying the full Fock-Goncharov conjecture) and the totally positive part of the tropicalization of an ideal presenting the corresponding cluster algebra. Suppose we are given a presentation of the cluster algebra by a Khovanskii basis for a collection of ${\bf g}$-vector valuations associated with several seeds related by mutations. In presence of a full rank fully extended exchange matrix we construct the rays of a subfan of the totally positive part of the tropicalization of the ideal that coincides combinato…
We develop a framework to apply tropical and nonarchimedean analytic techniques to multiplication maps on linear series and study degenerations of these multiplications maps when the special fiber is not of compact type. As an application, we give a tropical criterion for a curve over a valued field to be Gieseker-Petri general.
Let $X\rightarrow C$ be a totally real semistable degeneration over a smooth real curve $C$ with degenerate fiber $X_0$. Assuming that the irreducible components of $X_0$ are simple from a cohomological point of view, we give a bound for the individual Betti numbers of a real smooth fiber near $0$ in terms of the complex geometry of the degeneration. This generalizes previous work of Renaudineau-Shaw, obtained via combinatorial techniques, for tropical degenerations of hypersurfaces in smooth toric varieties. The main new ingredient is the use of real logarithmic geometry, which allows to work…
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…
Using tropical geometry we propose a mirror construction for monomial degenerations of Calabi-Yau varieties in toric Fano varieties. The construction reproduces the mirror constructions by Batyrev for Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces and by Batyrev and Borisov for Calabi-Yau complete intersections. We apply the construction to Pfaffian examples and recover the mirror given by Rodland for the degree 14 Calabi-Yau threefold in PP^6 defined by the Pfaffians of a general linear 7x7 skew-symmetric matrix. We provide the necessary background knowledge entering into the tropical mirror construction such as t…
We show that the tropical projective Grassmannian of planes is homeomorphic to a closed subset of the analytic Grassmannian in Berkovich's sense by constructing a continuous section to the tropicalization map. Our main tool is an explicit description of the algebraic coordinate rings of the toric strata of the Grassmannian. We determine the fibers of the tropicalization map and compute the initial degenerations of all the toric strata. As a consequence, we prove that the tropical multiplicities of all points in the tropical projective Grassmannian are equal to one. Finally, we determine a piec…
Batyrev (et. al.) constructed a family of Calabi-Yau varieties using small toric degenerations of the full flag variety G/B. They conjecture this family to be mirror to generic anti-canonical hypersurfaces in G/B. Recently Alexeev and Brion, as a part of their work on toric degenerations of spherical varieties, have constructed many degenerations of G/B. For any such degeneration we construct a family of varieties, which we prove coincides with Batyrev's in the small case. We prove that any two such families are birational, thus proving that mirror families are independent of the choice of deg…
We study the tropicalizations of Severi varieties, which we call tropical Severi varieties. In this paper, we give a partial answer to the following question, ``describe the tropical Severi varieties explicitly.'' We obtain a description of tropical Severi varieties in terms of regular subdivisions of polygons. As an intermediate step, we construct explicit parameter spaces of curves. These parameter spaces are much simpler objects than the corresponding Severi variety and they are closely related to flat degenerations of the Severi variety, which in turn describes the tropical Severi variety.…
Tropical geometry gives a bound on the ranks of divisors on curves in terms of the combinatorics of the dual graph of a degeneration. We show that for a family of examples, curves realizing this bound might only exist over certain characteristics or over certain fields of definition. Our examples also apply to the theory of metrized complexes and weighted graphs. These examples arise by relating the lifting problem to matroid realizability. We also give a proof of Mnëv universality with explicit bounds on the size of the matroid, which may be of independent interest.
We construct from a real affine manifold with singularities (a tropical manifold) a degeneration of Calabi-Yau manifolds. This solves a fundamental problem in mirror symmetry. Furthermore, a striking feature of our approach is that it yields an explicit and canonical order-by-order description of the degeneration via families of tropical trees. This gives complete control of the B-model side of mirror symmetry in terms of tropical geometry. For example, we expect our deformation parameter is a canonical coordinate, and expect period calculations to be expressible in terms of tropical curves. W…
Given a complete real-valued field $k$ of residue characteristic zero, we study properties of a differential form $ω$ on a smooth proper $k$-analytic curve $X$. In particular, we associate to $(X,ω)$ a natural tropical reduction datum combining tropical data of $(X,ω)$ and algebra-geometric reduction data over the residue field $\widetilde{k}$. We show that this datum satisfies natural compatibility condition, and prove a lifting theorem asserting that any compatible tropical reduction datum lifts to an actual pair $(X,ω)$. In particular, we obtain a short proof of the main result of a work [B…
We establish an explicit bijection between the toric degenerations of the Grassmannian $\textrm{Gr}(2,n)$ arising from maximal cones in tropical Grassmannians and the ones coming from plabic graphs corresponding to $\textrm{Gr}(2,n)$. We show that a similar statement does not hold for $\textrm{Gr}(3,6)$.
Let $R$ be a complete equicharacteristic noetherian local domain and $ν$ a valuation of its field of fractions whose valuation ring dominates $R$ with trivial residue field extension. The semigroup of values of $ν$ on $R\setminus \{0\}$ is not finitely generated in general. We produce equations in an appropriate generalized power series ring for the algebra encoding the degeneration of $R$ to the toric graded algebra ${\rm gr}_νR$ associated to the filtration defined by $ν$. We apply this to represent $ν$ as the limit of a sequence of Abhyankar semivaluations (valuations on quotients) of $R$ w…
We relate quantum degree cones, parametrizing PBW degenerations of quantized enveloping algebras, to (negative tight monomial) cones introduced by Lusztig in the study of monomials in canonical bases, to K-theoretic cones for quiver representations, and to some maximal prime cones in tropical flag varieties.
Given a finitely generated algebra $A$, it is a fundamental question whether $A$ has a full rank discrete (Krull) valuation $\mathfrak{v}$ with finitely generated value semigroup. We give a necessary and sufficient condition for this, in terms of tropical geometry of $A$. In the course of this we introduce the notion of a Khovanskii basis for $(A, \mathfrak{v})$ which provides a framework for far extending Gröbner theory on polynomial algebras to general finitely generated algebras. In particular, this makes a direct connection between the theory of Newton-Okounkov bodies and tropical geometry…
We consider the residual B-model variation of Hodge structure of Iritani defined by a family of toric Calabi--Yau hypersurfaces over a punctured disk $D \setminus \{ 0\}$. It is naturally extended to a logarithmic variation of polarized Hodge structure of Kato--Usui on the whole disk $D$. By restricting it to the origin, we obtain a polarized logarithmic Hodge structure (PLH) on the standard log point. In this paper, we describe the PLH in terms of the integral affine structure of the dual intersection complex of the toric degeneration in the Gross--Siebert program.
We give a spectral sequence to compute the logarithmic Hodge groups on a hypersurface type toric log Calabi-Yau space, compute its E_1 term explicitly in terms of tropical degeneration data and Jacobian rings and prove its degeneration at E_2 under mild assumptions. We prove the basechange of the affine Hodge groups and deduce it for the logarithmic Hodge groups in low dimensions. As an application, we prove a mirror symmetry duality in dimension two and four involving the usual Hodge numbers, the stringy Hodge numbers and the affine Hodge numbers.
We investigate the class of degenerations of smooth cubic surfaces which are obtained from degenerating their Cox rings to toric algebras. More precisely, we work in the spirit of Sturmfels and Xu who use the theory of Khovanskii bases to determine toric degenerations of Del Pezzo surfaces of degree 4 and who leave the question of classifying these degenerations in the degree 3 case as an open problem. In order to carry out this classification we describe an approach which is closely related to tropical geometry and present partial results in this direction.
We study totally real semi-stable degenerations (and more generally, smooth semi-stable degenerations). Our goal is to describe the homeomorphism type of the real locus $\mathbf{R} X_t$ of the general fibre in terms of the special fibre. We give a general homeomorphism statement via the real-oriented blow-up of the family. Using this, we give more explicit descriptions of $\mathbf{R} X_t$ as a stratified space glued from (covers of) strata of the special fibre. We also give relative versions of the statements and consider the example of toric degenerations in order to link the technique to tro…
We give a tropical description of the counting of real log curves in toric degenerations of toric varieties. We treat the case of genus zero curves and all non-superabundant higher-genus situations. The proof relies on log deformation theory and is a real version of the Nishinou-Siebert approach to the tropical correspondence theorem for complex curves. In dimension two, we use similar techniques to study the counting of real log curves with Welschinger signs and we obtain a new proof of Mikhalkin's tropical correspondence theorem for Welschinger invariants.
Our main goal is to show that the Gelfand--Tsetlin toric degeneration of the type A flag variety can be obtained within a degenerate representation-theoretic framework similar to the theory of PBW degenerations. In fact, we provide such frameworks for all Gröbner degenerations intermediate between the flag variety and the GT toric variety. These degenerations are shown to induce filtrations on the irreducible representations and the associated graded spaces are acted upon by a certain associative algebra. To achieve our goal, we construct embeddings of our Gröbner degenerations into the projec…
