A tropical proof of the Brill-Noether theorem (Q424570)

Brill-Noether theory studies the scheme \(W^{r}_{d}(X)\) which parametrizes linear systems of degree \(d\) and dimension \(r\) on a smooth projective curve \(X\) of genus \(g\). The main results of this theory assert that the if \(\rho = g -(r+1)(g-d+r)\) is negative then the scheme \(W^{r}_{d}(X)\) is empty otherwise its dimension is \(\min\{ \rho, g\}\). Moreover when \(\rho =0\) then \(W^{r}_{d}(X)\) consists of \[ g! \prod_{i=1}^{r} \frac{i!}{(g-d+r+i)!} \] points. In this paper, the authors present a novel proof of these results which is valid for any algebraically closed valued field of characteristic zero. They use Baker's Specialization Lemma [\textit{M. Baker}, Algebra Number Theory 2, No. 6, 613--653 (2008; Zbl 1162.14018)] to reduce the problem to Brill-Noether conjecture for graphs (Conjecture 3.3 [oc. cit.]). The result for graphs is then established by using explicit combinatorics of particular lattice paths in \(\mathbb{Z}^{r}\). A remarkable feature of this proof is that, contrary to all previous proofs, see for instance [\textit{E. Arbarello} et al., Geometry of algebraic curves. Volume I. Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften, 267. New York etc.: Springer-Verlag. (1985; Zbl 0559.14017)], this proof doesn't rely on subtle geometric arguments and it is much more elementary in nature.