arXiv subjects

Ralph Morrison

Publications and source records attributed to Ralph Morrison.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2021

Gonality sequences of graphs

To any graph we associate a sequence of integers called the gonality sequence of the graph, consisting of the minimum degrees of divisors of increasing rank on the graph. This is a tropical analogue of the gonality sequence of an algebraic curve. We study gonality sequences for graphs of low genus, proving that for genus up to $5$, the gonality sequence is determined by the genus and the first gonality. We then prove that any reasonable pair of first two gonalities is achieved by some graph. We also develop a modified version of Dhar's burning algorithm more suited for studying higher gonalities.

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arXiv2021

Prism graphs in tropical plane curves

Any smooth tropical plane curve contains a distinguished trivalent graph called its skeleton. In 2020 Morrison and Tewari proved that the so-called big face graphs cannot be the skeleta of tropical curves for genus $12$ and greater. In this paper we answer an open question they posed to extend their result to the prism graphs, proving that they are the skeleton of a smooth tropical plane curve precisely when the genus is at most $11$. Our main tool is a classification of lattice polygons with two points than can simultaneously view all others, without having any one point that can observe all others.

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arXiv2020

Moduli dimensions of lattice polygons

Given a lattice polygon $P$ with $g$ interior lattice points, we associate to it the moduli space of tropical curves of genus $g$ with Newton polygon $P$. We completely classify the possible dimensions such a moduli space can have. For non-hyperelliptic polygons the dimension must be between $g$ and $2g+1$, and can take on any integer value in this range, with exceptions only in the cases of genus $3$, $4$, and $7$. We provide a similar result for hyperelliptic polygons, for which the range of dimensions is from $g$ to $2g-1$. In the case of non-hyperelliptic polygons, our results also hold for the moduli space of algebraic curves that are non-degenerate with respect to $P$.

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arXiv2020

Higher-distance commuting varieties

The commuting variety of matrices over a given field is a well-studied object in linear algebra and algebraic geometry. As a set, it consists of all pairs of square matrices with entries in that field that commute with one another. In this paper we generalise the commuting variety by using the commuting distance of matrices. We show that over an algebraically closed field, each of our sets does indeed form a variety. We compute the dimension of the distance-$2$ commuting variety and characterize its irreducible components. We also work over other fields, showing that the distance-$2$ commuting set is a variety but that the higher distance commuting sets may or may not be varieties, depending on the field and on the size of the matrices.

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arXiv2020

Convex lattice polygons with all lattice points visible

Two lattice points are visible to one another if there exist no other lattice points on the line segment connecting them. In this paper we study convex lattice polygons that contain a lattice point such that all other lattice points in the polygon are visible from it. We completely classify such polygons, show that there are finitely many of lattice width greater than $2$, and computationally enumerate them. As an application of this classification, we prove new obstructions to graphs arising as skeleta of tropical plane curves.

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arXiv2020

Graphs of gonality three

In 2013, Chan classified all metric hyperelliptic graphs, proving that divisorial gonality and geometric gonality are equivalent in the hyperelliptic case. We show that such a classification extends to combinatorial graphs of divisorial gonality three, under certain edge- and vertex-connectivity assumptions. We also give a construction for graphs of divisorial gonality three, and provide conditions for determining when a graph is not of divisorial gonality three.

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arXiv2020

Tropically planar graphs

We study tropically planar graphs, which are the graphs that appear in smooth tropical plane curves. We develop necessary conditions for graphs to be tropically planar, and compute the number of tropically planar graphs up to genus $7$. We provide non-trivial upper and lower bounds on the number of tropically planar graphs, and prove that asymptotically $0\%$ of connected trivalent planar graphs are tropically planar.

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arXiv2019

Tropical hyperelliptic curves in the plane

Abstractly, tropical hyperelliptic curves are metric graphs that admit a two-to-one harmonic morphism to a tree. They also appear as embedded tropical curves in the plane arising from triangulations of polygons with all interior lattice points collinear. We prove that hyperelliptic graphs can only arise from such polygons. Along the way we will prove certain graphs do not embed tropically in the plane due to entirely combinatorial obstructions, regardless of whether their metric is actually hyperelliptic.

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arXiv2019

Treewidth and gonality of glued grid graphs

We compute the treewidth of a family of graphs we refer to as the glued grids, consisting of the stacked prism graphs and the toroidal grids. Our main technique is constructing strict brambles of large orders. We discuss connections to divisorial graph theory coming from tropical geometry, and use our results to compute the divisorial gonality of these graphs.

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arXiv2019

On the gonality of Cartesian products of graphs

In this paper we study Cartesian products of graphs and their divisorial gonality, which is a tropical version of the gonality of an algebraic curve. We present an upper bound on the gonality of the Cartesian product of any two graphs, and provide instances where this bound holds with equality, including for the $m\times n$ rook's graph with $\min\{m,n\}\leq 5$. We use our upper bound to prove that Baker's gonality conjecture holds for the Cartesian product of any two graphs with two or more vertices each, and we determine precisely which nontrivial product graphs have gonality equal to Baker's conjectural upper bound.

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arXiv2019

Tropical geometry

Tropical mathematics redefines the rules of arithmetic by replacing addition with taking a maximum, and by replacing multiplication with addition. After briefly discussing a tropical version of linear algebra, we study polynomials build with these new operations. These equations define piecewise-linear geometric objects called tropical varieties. We explore these tropical varieties in two and three dimensions, building up discrete tools for studying them and determining their geometric properties. We then discuss the relationship between tropical geometry and algebraic geometry, which considers shapes defined by usual polynomial equations.

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arXiv2019

The smallest art gallery not guarded by every third vertex

A polygonal art gallery can be observed by guards placed at one third of its corners. However, the strategy of placing guards at every third corner does not work for all art galleries. In this note, we provide an example of a nine-sided art gallery for which this strategy fails, and prove that this example is minimal.

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arXiv2015

Bitangents of tropical plane quartic curves

We study smooth tropical plane quartic curves and show that they satisfy certain properties analogous to (but also different from) smooth plane quartics in algebraic geometry. For example, we show that every such curve admits either infinitely many or exactly 7 bitangent lines. We also prove that a smooth tropical plane quartic curve cannot be hyperelliptic.

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arXiv2015

The Tropical Commuting Variety

We study tropical commuting matrices from two viewpoints: linear algebra and algebraic geometry. In classical linear algebra, there exist various criteria to test whether two square matrices commute. We ask for similar criteria in the realm of tropical linear algebra, giving conditions for two tropical matrices that are polytropes to commute. From the algebro-geometric perspective, we explicitly compute the tropicalization of the classical variety of commuting matrices in dimension 2 and 3.

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arXiv2014

Moduli of Tropical Plane Curves

We study the moduli space of metric graphs that arise from tropical plane curves. There are far fewer such graphs than tropicalizations of classical plane curves. For fixed genus $g$, our moduli space is a stacky fan whose cones are indexed by regular unimodular triangulations of Newton polygons with $g$ interior lattice points. It has dimension $2g+1$ unless $g \leq 3$ or $g = 7$. We compute these spaces explicitly for $g \leq 5$.

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arXiv2014

Tropical Images of Intersection Points

A key issue in tropical geometry is the lifting of intersection points to a non-Archimedean field. Here, we ask: Where can classical intersection points of planar curves tropicalize to? An answer should have two parts: first, identifying constraints on the images of classical intersections, and, second, showing that all tropical configurations satisfying these constraints can be achieved. This paper provides the first part: images of intersection points must be linearly equivalent to the stable tropical intersection by a suitable rational function. Several examples provide evidence for the conjecture that our constraints may suffice for part two.

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arXiv2013

Algorithms for Mumford curves

Mumford showed that Schottky subgroups of $PGL(2,K)$ give rise to certain curves, now called Mumford curves, over a non-Archimedean field K. Such curves are foundational to subjects dealing with non-Archimedean varieties, including Berkovich theory and tropical geometry. We develop and implement numerical algorithms for Mumford curves over the field of p-adic numbers. A crucial and difficult step is finding a good set of generators for a Schottky group, a problem solved in this paper. This result allows us to design and implement algorithms for tasks such as: approximating the period matrices of the Jacobians of Mumford curves; computing the Berkovich skeleta of their analytifications; and approximating points in canonical embeddings. We also discuss specific methods and future work for hyperelliptic Mumford curves.

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arXiv2011

An elliptic curve test of the L-Functions Ratios Conjecture

We compare the L-Function Ratios Conjecture's prediction with number theory for the family of quadratic twists of a fixed elliptic curve with prime conductor, and show agreement in the 1-level density up to an error term of size X^{-(1-sigma)/2} for test functions supported in (-sigma, sigma); this gives us a power-savings for σ<1. This test of the Ratios Conjecture introduces complications not seen in previous cases (due to the level of the elliptic curve). Further, the results here are one of the key ingredients in the companion paper [DHKMS2], where they are used to determine the effective matrix size for modeling zeros near the central point for this family. The resulting model beautifully describes the behavior of these low lying zeros for finite conductors, explaining the data observed by Miller in [Mil3]. A key ingredient in our analysis is a generalization of Jutila's bound for sums of quadratic characters with the additional restriction that the fundamental discriminant be congruent to a non-zero square modulo a square-free integer M. This bound is needed for two purposes. The first is to analyze the terms in the explicit formula corresponding to characters raised to an odd power. The second is to determine the main term in the 1-level density of quadratic twists of a fixed form on GL_n. Such an analysis was performed by Rubinstein [Rub], who implicitly assumed that Jutila's bound held with the additional restriction on the fundamental discriminants; in this paper we show that assumption is justified.

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