arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Grigory Mikhalkin.
An $n$-dimensional algebraic variety in $({\mathbb C}^\times)^{2n}$ covers its amoeba as well as its coamoeba generically finite-to-one. We provide an upper bound for the volume of these amoebas as well as for the number of points in the inverse images under the amoeba and coamoeba maps.
The paper consists of lecture notes for a mini-course given by the authors at the Gökova Geometry \& Topology conference in May 2014. We start the exposition with tropical curves in the plane and their applications to problems in classical enumerative geometry, and continue with a look at more general tropical varieties and their homology theories.
Tropical manifolds are polyhedral complexes enhanced with certain kind of affine structure. This structure manifests itself through a particular cohomology class which we call the eigenwave of a tropical manifold. Other wave classes of similar type are responsible for deformations of the tropical structure. If a tropical manifold is approximable by a 1-parametric family of complex manifolds then the eigenwave records the monodromy of the family around the tropical limit. With the help of tropical homology and the eigenwave we define tropical intermediate Jacobians which can be viewed as tropical analogs of classical intermediate Jacobians.
Finding the so-called characteristic numbers of the complex projective plane ${\mathbb C}P^2$ is a classical problem of enumerative geometry posed by Zeuthen more than a century ago. For a given $d$ and $g$ one has to find the number of degree $d$ genus $g$ curves that pass through a certain generic configuration of points and at the same time are tangent to a certain generic configuration of lines. The total number of points and lines in these two configurations is $3d-1+g$ so that the answer is a finite integer number. In this paper we translate this classical problem to the corresponding enumerative problem of tropical geometry in the case when $g=0$. Namely, we show that the tropical problem is well-posed and establish a special case of the correspondence theorem that ensures that the corresponding tropical and classical numbers coincide. Then we use the floor diagram calculus to reduce the problem to pure combinatorics. As a consequence, we express genus 0 characteristic numbers of $\CC P^2$ in terms of open Hurwitz numbers.
We prove invariance for the number of planar tropical curves enhanced with polynomial multiplicities recently proposed by Florian Block and Lothar Goettsche. This invariance has a number of implications in tropical enumerative geometry.
We give a tropical interpretation of Hurwitz numbers extending the one discovered in \cite{CJM}. In addition we treat a generalization of Hurwitz numbers for surfaces with boundary which we call open Hurwitz numbers.
Floor diagrams are a class of weighted oriented graphs introduced by E. Brugalle and the second author. Tropical geometry arguments lead to combinatorial descriptions of (ordinary and relative) Gromov-Witten invariants of projective spaces in terms of floor diagrams and their generalizations. In a number of cases, these descriptions can be used to obtain explicit (direct or recursive) formulas for the corresponding enumerative invariants. In particular, we use this approach to enumerate rational curves of given degree passing through a collection of points on the complex plane and having maximal tangency to a given line. Another application of the combinatorial approach is a proof of a conjecture by P. Di Francesco -- C. Itzykson and L. Goettsche that in the case of a fixed cogenus, the number of plane curves of degree d passing through suitably many generic points is given by a polynomial in d, assuming that d is sufficiently large. Furthermore, the proof provides a method for computing these "node polynomials." A labeled floor diagram is obtained by labeling the vertices of a floor diagram by the integers 1,...,d in a manner compatible with the orientation. We show that labeled floor diagrams of genus 0 are equinumerous to labeled trees, and therefore counted by the celebrated Cayley's formula. The corresponding bijections lead to interpretations of the Kontsevich numbers (the genus-0 Gromov-Witten invariants of the projective plane) in terms of certain statistics on trees.
We study Jacobian varieties for tropical curves. These are real tori equipped with integral affine structure and symmetric bilinear form. We define tropical counterpart of the theta function and establish tropical versions of the Abel-Jacobi, Riemann-Roch and Riemann theta divisor theorems.
These condensed notes treat some basic notions in Tropical Geometry (varieties, cycles, modifications, equivalence). These topics are to be extended, illustrated and included to the upcoming book project http://www.math.toronto.edu/mikha/book.pdf .
In this note we compute some enumerative invariants of real and complex projective spaces by means of some enriched graphs called floor diagrams.
This note is devoted to the definition of moduli spaces of rational tropical curves with n marked points. We show that this space has a structure of a smooth tropical variety of dimension n-3. We define the Deligne-Mumford compactification of this space and tropical $ψ$-class divisors.
The log-front of two plane curves P(z,w)=0 and Q(z,w)=0 is the locus of (a,b) such that Q(az,bw)=0 is tangent to P(z,w)=0. Log-fronts generalize dual curves, wave fronts, and arise naturally in the theory of random surfaces. Our goal in this paper is to prove analogs of Plucker and Klein formulas for log-fronts.
These notes outline some basic notions of Tropical Geometry and survey some of its applications for problems in classical (real and complex) geometry. To appear in the Proceedings of the Madrid ICM.
The paper establishes a formula for enumeration of curves of arbitrary genus in toric surfaces. It turns out that such curves can be counted by means of certain lattice paths in the Newton polygon. The formula was announced earlier in http://arxiv.org/abs/math.AG/0209253. The result is established with the help of the so-called tropical algebraic geometry. This geometry allows one to replace complex toric varieties with the Euclidean n-space and holomorphic curves with certain piecewise-linear graphs there.
This survey consists of two parts. Part 1 is devoted to amoebas. These are images of algebraic subvarieties in the complex torus under the logarithmic moment map. The amoebas have essentially piecewise-linear shape if viewed at large. Furthermore, they degenerate to certain piecewise-linear objects called tropical varieties whose behavior is governed by algebraic geometry over the so-called tropical semifield. Geometric aspects of tropical algebraic geometry are the content of Part 2. We pay special attention to tropical curves. Both parts also include relevant applications of the theories. Part 1 of this survey is a revised and updated version of an earlier prepreint of 2001.
It is well-known that a Riemann surface can be decomposed into the so-called pairs-of-pants. Each pair-of-pants is diffeomorphic to a Riemann sphere minus 3 points. We show that a smooth complex projective hypersurface of arbitrary dimension admits a similar decomposition. The n-dimensional pair-of-pants is diffeomorphic to the complex projective n-space minus n+2 hyperplanes. Alternatively, these decompositions can be treated as certain fibrations on the hypersurfaces. We show that there exists a singular fibration on the hypersurface with an n-dimensional polyhedral complex as its base and a real n-torus as its fiber. The base accomodates the geometric genus of a hypersurface V. Its homotopy type is a wedge of h^{n,0}(V) spheres S^n.
This note presents a formula for the enumerative invariants of arbitrary genus in toric surfaces. The formula computes the number of curves of a given genus through a collection of generic points in the surface. The answer is given in terms of certain lattice paths in the relevant Newton polygon. If the toric surface is the projective plane or the product of two projective lines then the invariants under consideration coincide with the Gromov-Witten invariants. The formula gives a new count even in these cases, where other computational technique is available.
The amoebas associated to algebraic varieties are certain concave regions in the Euclidean space whose shape reminds biological amoebas. This term was formally introduced to Mathematics in 1994 by Gelfand, Kapranov and Zelevinski. Some traces of amoebas were appearing from time to time, even before the formal introduction, as auxiliary tools in several problems. After 1994 amoebas have been seen and studied in several areas of mathematics, from algebraic geometry and topology to complex analysis and combinatorics. In particular, amoebas provided a very powerful tool for studying topology of algebraic varieties. This survey aims to summarize the current state of knowledge about amoebas and to outline the applications to real algebraic geometry and adjacent areas. Most proofs are omitted here. An expanded version of this survey is currently under preparation jointly with Oleg Viro.