Moduli spaces of tropical curves of higher genus with marked points and homotopy colimits

Abstract: The main characters of this paper are the moduli spaces

T M_{g, n}

of rational tropical curves of genus

g

with

n

marked points, with

g g e q 2

. We reduce the study of the homotopy type of these spaces to the analysis of compact spaces

X_{g, n}

, which in turn possess natural representations as a homotopy colimits of diagrams of topological spaces over combinatorially defined generalized simplicial complexes

D e l t a_{g}

, with the latter being interesting on their own right. We use these homotopy colimit representations to describe a CW complex decomposition for each

X_{g, n}

. Furthermore, we use these developments, coupled with some standard tools for working with homotopy colimits, to perform an in-depth analysis of special cases of genus 2 and 3, gaining a complete understanding of the moduli spaces

X_{2, 0}

,

X_{2, 1}

,

X_{2, 2}

, and

X_{3, 0}

, as well as a partial understanding of other cases, resulting in several open questions and in further conjectures.

Review text

Moduli spaces \(TM_{g,n}\) of tropical curves of genus g with n marked points were introduced by \textit{A.~Gathmann} and \textit{H.~Markwig} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 602, 155--177 (2007; Zbl 1115.14049)] and \textit{G.~Mikhalkin} [in: Proceedings of the 13th Gökova geometry-topology conference, Gökova, Turkey, May 28--June 2, 2006. Cambridge, MA: International Press. 39--51 (2007; Zbl 1203.14027)], motivated by the correspondence theorem of \textit{G. Mikhalkin} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 18, 313--377 (2005; Zbl 1092.14068)]. Although their geometry is extensively studied, few is known about topology of tropical moduli spaces. The author explicitly constructs a certain \((2g-3)\)-dimensional ``generalized simplicial complex \(\Delta_g\), such that \(TM_{g,0}\) is homotopy equivalent to \(\Delta_g\) and, more generally, \(TM_{g,n}\) for every \(n\) is homotopy equivalent to a certain ``generalized fibration (homotopy colimit) over \(\Delta_g\). By means of this tool, the author constructs a CW-complex with a controllable number of cells that is homotopy equivalent to \(TM_{g,n}\) for all \(n\) and \(g\), describes topology of \(TM_{g,n}\) for small \(n\) and \(g\), conjectures asymptotics of the Euler characteristic of \(TM_{g,n}\) for large \(n\).

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