Combinatorics and Genus of Tropical Intersections and Ehrhart Theory

Reinhard Steffens, Thorsten Theobald

Published 2009-02-06, updated 2009-11-26Version 3

Let $g_1, ..., g_k$ be tropical polynomials in $n$ variables with Newton polytopes $P_1, ..., P_k$. We study combinatorial questions on the intersection of the tropical hypersurfaces defined by $g_1, ..., g_k$, such as the $f$-vector, the number of unbounded faces and (in case of a curve) the genus. Our point of departure is Vigeland's work who considered the special case $k=n-1$ and where all Newton polytopes are standard simplices. We generalize these results to arbitrary $k$ and arbitrary Newton polytopes $P_1, ..., P_k$. This provides new formulas for the number of faces and the genus in terms of mixed volumes. By establishing some aspects of a mixed version of Ehrhart theory we show that the genus of a tropical intersection curve equals the genus of a toric intersection curve corresponding to the same Newton polytopes.