Title: Moduli spaces of tropical curves and tropical psi classes
Speaker: Andreas Gross - Colorado State University
Abstract: Tropical curves are piecewise linear objects arising as degenerations of algebraic curves. The close connection between algebraic curves and their tropical limits persists when considering moduli. This exhibits certain spaces of tropical curves as the tropicalizations of the moduli spaces of stable curves. It is, however, still unclear which properties of the algebraic moduli spaces of curves are reflected in their tropical counterparts. In joint work with Renzo Cavalieri and Hannah Markwig we define tropical psi classes as a first step towards tropical tautological ring. I will explain how we almost recover the dilaton and string equations and will also point out some of the differences between the algebraic and tropical worlds.