Polynomiality, Wall Crossings and Tropical Geometry of Rational Double Hurwitz Cycles

We study rational double Hurwitz cycles, i.e. loci of marked rational stable curves admitting a map to the projective line with assigned ramification profiles over two fixed branch points. Generalizing the phenomenon observed for double Hurwitz numbers, such cycles are piecewise polynomial in the entries of the special ramification; the chambers of polynomiality and wall crossings have an explicit and "modular" description. A main goal of this paper is to simultaneously carry out this investigation for the corresponding objects in tropical geometry, underlining a precise combinatorial duality between classical and tropical Hurwitz theory

Cycle Double Covers and Semi-Kotzig Frame

Let $H$ be a cubic graph admitting a 3-edge-coloring $c: E(H)\to \mathbb Z_3$ such that the edges colored by 0 and $\mu\in\{1,2\}$ induce a Hamilton circuit of $H$ and the edges colored by 1 and 2 induce a 2-factor $F$. The graph $H$ is semi-Kotzig if switching colors of edges in any even subgraph of $F$ yields a new 3-edge-coloring of $H$ having the same property as $c$. A spanning subgraph $H$ of a cubic graph $G$ is called a {\em semi-Kotzig frame} if the contracted graph $G/H$ is even and every non-circuit component of $H$ is a subdivision of a semi-Kotzig graph. In this paper, we show that a cubic graph $G$ has a circuit double cover if it has a semi-Kotzig frame with at most one non-circuit component. Our result generalizes some results of Goddyn (1988), and H\"{a}ggkvist and Markstr\"{o}m [J. Combin. Theory Ser. B (2006)]