The moduli space of tropical curves with fixed Newton polygon

Abstract

Given a lattice polygon, we study the moduli space of all tropical plane curves with that Newton polygon. We determine a formula for the dimension of this space in terms of combinatorial properties of that polygon. If this polygon is nonhyperelliptic or maximal and hyperelliptic, then this formula matches the dimension of the moduli space of nondegenerate algebraic curves with the given Newton polygon.