Tropicalization of 1-tacnodal curves on toric surfaces (Q2176816)

The basic object studied in the paper are \(1\)-tacnodal curves and their tropicalization; that is, curves with exactly one singular point of type \(A_3\) in the linear system \(D(\Delta)\) on a polarized toric surface \(X(\Delta)\). It introduces tropical \(1\)-tacnodal curves, in the form of an explicit list of dual decompositions of the polygon \(\Delta\), see \S 3.1. The main result, Theorem 4.1, establishes that the tropicalization of a \(1\)-tacnodal curve is a \(1\)-tacnodal tropical curve; it is proven by using the defining equations of \(1\)-tacnodal curves to establish properties of polygons appearing in the relevant subdivisions of \(\Delta\), which in turn are used to exclude most of the subdivisions in a case-by-case manner. The paper is close in spirit to, and uses some of the results in [\textit{E. Shustin}, St. Petersbg. Math. J. 17, No. 2, 343--375 (2006; Zbl 1100.14046)], where a similar description is established for analogously defined \(1\)-cuspidal curves (\S 4 in [loc cit.]). In [loc. cit.], this description is used to establish a formula in terms of tropical curves for the degree of \(V(\Delta, A_2)\), the Severi variety parametrizing \(1\)-cuspidal curves in \(D(\Delta)\). This is the main algebro-geometric application discussed in the current paper and Theorem 4.1 is the first step to obtain such a formula also for \(V(\Delta, A_3)\). The missing part is a correspondence theorem; that is, a description in tropical terms of how many \(1\)-tacnodal algebraic curves (satisfying an appropriate amount of general point conditions) tropicalize to a given \(1\)-tacnodal tropical curve. The issues that appear when allowing tacnodes -- as opposed to only nodes and cusps -- are discussed in Remark 4.12.