Relative node polynomials for plane curves (Q1759327)

This paper deals with problems of counting plane curves of some degree and genus and satisfying point conditions and tangency conditions to a fixed line, also called relative Gromov-Witten invariants of the plane. It uses a technique developed by Fomin and Mikhalkin based on tropical geometry, namely to further degenerate tropical curves to purely combinatorial objects called floor diagrams. Floor diagrams have proved themselves useful in several occasions, e.g. when they were used by \textit{S. Fomin} and \textit{G. Milhakin} [J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS) 12, No. 6, 1453--1496 (2010; Zbl 1218.14047)] to prove for a fixed number \(\delta\) of nodes the polynomiality of the function associating to a degree \(d\) the number of algebraic curves of degree \(d\) with \(\delta\) nodes and satisfying the appropriate number of point conditions. This paper non-trivially generalizes this result by proving the polynomiality of the function counting curves that satisfy not only point conditions, but also tangency conditions to a fixed line.