MODULI SPACES OF RATIONAL WEIGHTED STABLE CURVES AND TROPICAL GEOMETRY

Abstract

We study moduli spaces of rational weighted stable tropical curves, and their connections with Hassett spaces. Given a vector $w$ of weights, the moduli space of tropical $w$-stable curves can be given the structure of a balanced fan if and only if $w$ has only heavy and light entries. In this case, the tropical moduli space can be expressed as the Bergman fan of an explicit graphic matroid. The tropical moduli space can be realized as a geometric tropicalization, and as a Berkovich skeleton, its algebraic counterpart. This builds on previous work of Tevelev, Gibney and Maclagan, and Abramovich, Caporaso and Payne. Finally, we construct the moduli spaces of heavy/light weighted tropical curves as fibre products of unweighted spaces, and explore parallels with the algebraic world.