On refined count of rational tropical curves (Q2214901)

The paper deals with rational tropical curves, which are some piecewise linear graphs with rational slopes in \(\mathbb{R}^2\) or more generally \(\mathbb{R}^m\). More precisely, a rational tropical curve is a pair \((\Gamma,h)\), where \(\Gamma\) is a metric graph without loops having some unbounded edges, and \(h:\Gamma\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^m\) is a map which is linear with integer slope on the edges of \(\Gamma\), and satisfying the balancing conditions at the vertices: the sum of the outgoing slopes of \(h\) is zero. These curves were used by \textit{G. Mikhalkin} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 18, No. 2, 313--377 (2005; Zbl 1092.14068)] to compute some real and complex geometric invariants, by counting the tropical curves solution to some enumerative problem with suitable integer multiplicities. Later, \textit{F. Block} and \textit{L. Göttsche} [Compos. Math. 152, No. 1, 115--151 (2016; Zbl 1348.14125)] proposed a way to combine these integer multiplicities into a polynomial one, leading to tropical refined invariants. Many generalizations of these refined invariants have been considered, and the present papers provides two of them in the setting of two specific enumerative problems about rational tropical curves. This means that the count of curves meeting some constraints and using a suitable refined multiplicity (here a Laurent polynomial) does to some extent not depend on the choice of the constraints. The first result concerns planar rational tropical curves with vertices of valency higher than \(4\), and the second one deals with rational tropical curves in arbitrary dimension. The first main result is a refined invariance statement for rational tropical curves in the plane having vertices of valency greater than \(3\). The statement is as follows. Let \(\Delta\subset\mathbb{Z}^2\) be a tropical degree, which is a family of vector with total sum \(0\) and prescribes the slope of \(h\) on the unbounded edges of \(\Gamma\). Let \(v_1,\dots,v_n>1\) be integers, and \(p_1,\dots,p_n\subset\mathbb{R}^2\) be a family a points in the plane, (resp. additionally an integer \(v>3\)) with \(n\) and \((v_i)\) chosen so that the number of solutions to the hereby considered enumerative problem is finite and non-zero. The problem consists in finding the rational tropical curves of degree \(\Delta\) having a vertex of valency \(v_i\) at each \(p_i\), (resp. and at most one non-trivalent vertex of valency \(v\)). The curves are counted with a refined multiplicity, which is a Laurent polynomial in one variable defined in a recursive way. Moreover, the multiplicity is a product over the vertices of the tropical curve. The invariance result is that the count of solutions using the refined multiplicity does not depend on the choice of points \((p_i)\) as long as it is generic. When the \(v_i\) are equal to \(2\) and there is no vertex of valency higher than \(4\), this result generalizes the already known refined Block-Göttsche invariants [\textit{F. Block} and \textit{L. Göttsche}, Compos. Math. 152, No. 1, 115--151 (2016; Zbl 1348.14125)]. If the \(v_i\) are equal to \(2\) or \(3\) and there is still no unfixed vertex of higher valency, one recovers the refined broccoli invariants introduced by \textit{L. Göttsche} and \textit{F. Schroeter} [J. Algebr. Geom. 28, No. 1, 1--41 (2019; Zbl 1439.14183)]. The second considered enumerative problem is as follows. Let \(\Delta\subset\mathbb{Z}^m\) be a tropical degree in dimension \(m\). We look for rational tropical curves of degree \(\Delta\) subject to the \(n=|\Delta|-1\) following conditions: the curve passes through a fixed point \(x_0\in\mathbb{R}^m\) and meets \(n-1\) codimension \(2\) affine subspaces \(\mathbf{L}_1,\dots,\mathbf{L}_{n-1}\) having respective rational slopes \(L_1,\dots,L_{n-1}\). This enumerative problem depends on the choice of \(x_0\), the slopes \(L_i\), and the affine subspaces of slope \(\mathbf{L}_i\). The solutions of the enumerative problem are counted with the following refined multiplicity, which generalizes the refined multiplicity from Block-Göttsche in the planar case. Let \((\Gamma,h)\) be a solution, then the vertices of \(\Gamma\) are trivalent if the constraints \(x_0,\mathbf{L}_1,\dots,\mathbf{L}_{n-1}\) are chosen generically. Let \(L\) be a generic codimension \(2\) subspace, with a chosen orientation of \(\mathbb{R}^m/L\). The refined multiplicity of \((\Gamma,h)\) is \[ SI(\Gamma,h)=\prod_{V\in\Gamma^0}(z^{a_V\wedge b_V}-z^{b_V\wedge a_V})\in\mathbb{Z}[\Lambda^2\mathbb{Z}^m],\] where the product is over the vertices \(V\) of \(\Gamma\), and \(a_V,b_V\) are the outgoing slopes of \(h\), chosen such that they project to an oriented basis of \(\mathbb{R}^m/L\). This refined multiplicity is a Laurent polynomial in several variables. The second main result of the paper is then that there exists a neighborhood \(U(L)\) of \(L\) such that the count of solutions to the enumerative problem using the refined multiplicity does not depend on the choice of the slopes \(L_1,\dots,L_{n-1}\) chosen in \(U(L)\), nor the choice of \(x_0\) and the affine translates \(\mathbf{L}_1,\dots,\mathbf{L}_{n-1}\).