Lifting tropical curves in space and linear systems on graphs (Q438165)

There are well-known structure theorems in tropical geometry, for instance that the tropicalization of an \(n\)-dimensional subvariety of a torus over a valued field is an \(n\)-dimension polyhedral complex in Euclidean space that is connected in codimension one and with weights on the facets satisfying a zero-tension balancing condition. This leads to interesting realizability/lifting questions: which polyhedral complexes satisfying the above conditions are the tropicalization of an algebraic variety, and what is the dependence on the valued field? Variations of this questions have been asked, for instance in the context of tropical linear spaces, tropical linear systems, etc. \textit{G. Mikhalkin} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 18, No. 2, 313--377 (2005; Zbl 1092.14068)] has shown that abstractly all metric graphs lift to algebraic curves, but the question is more subtle for embedded curves. Here earlier work of Speyer comes in, namely the well-spaced condition. In the present article the focus is a slight variation of this setting, namely lifting of parameterized curves. The author provides a necessary combinatorial condition for lifting which in some cases coincides with \textit{D. E. Speyer}'s necessary and sufficient superabundancy condition [Algebra Number Theory 8, No. 4, 963--998 (2014; Zbl 1301.14035)], and also yields a condition of \textit{T. Nishinou} [``Correspondence theorems for tropical curves'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:0912.5090}] derived from log geometry in some settings, but this necessary condition applies more broadly. Closely related to Nishinou's condition, it too derives from log geometry, and more specifically can be seen as the vanishing of a log geometry deformation-theoretic obstruction class. The paper provides a thorough investigation of this necessary condition, for instance including an explicit example of a curve that does not lift yet the only known obstruction is the one constructed in this paper. The author also investigates linear systems and their role in this story.