Newton polygons and curve gonalities

We give a combinatorial upper bound for the gonality of a curve that is defined by a bivariate Laurent polynomial with given Newton polygon. We conjecture that this bound is generically attained, and provide proofs in a considerable number of special cases. One proof technique uses recent work of M. Baker on linear systems on graphs, by means of which we reduce our conjecture to a purely combinatorial statement.Comment: 29 pages, 18 figures; erratum at the end of the articl

Linear pencils encoded in the Newton polygon

Let $C$ be an algebraic curve defined by a sufficiently generic bivariate Laurent polynomial with given Newton polygon $\Delta$. It is classical that the geometric genus of $C$ equals the number of lattice points in the interior of $\Delta$. In this paper we give similar combinatorial interpretations for the gonality, the Clifford index and the Clifford dimension, by removing a technical assumption from a recent result of Kawaguchi. More generally, the method shows that apart from certain well-understood exceptions, every base-point free pencil whose degree equals or slightly exceeds the gonality is 'combinatorial', in the sense that it corresponds to projecting $C$ along a lattice direction. We then give an interpretation for the scrollar invariants associated to a combinatorial pencil, and show how one can tell whether the pencil is complete or not. Among the applications, we find that every smooth projective curve admits at most one Weierstrass semi-group of embedding dimension $2$, and that if a non-hyperelliptic smooth projective curve $C$ of genus $g \geq 2$ can be embedded in the $n$th Hirzebruch surface $\mathcal{H}_n$, then $n$ is actually an invariant of $C$.Comment: This covers and extends sections 1 to 3.4 of our previously posted article "On the intrinsicness of the Newton polygon" (arXiv:1304.4997), which will eventually become obsolete. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1304.499

The lattice size of a lattice polygon

We give upper bounds on the minimal degree of a model in $\mathbb{P}^2$ and the minimal bidegree of a model in $\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^1$ of the curve defined by a given Laurent polynomial, in terms of the combinatorics of the Newton polygon of the latter. We prove in various cases that this bound is sharp as soon as the polynomial is sufficiently generic with respect to its Newton polygon

On the relation between weighted trees and tropical Grassmannians

In this article, we will prove that the set of 4-dissimilarity vectors of n-trees is contained in the tropical Grassmannian G_{4,n}. We will also propose three equivalent conjectures related to the set of m-dissimilarity vectors of n-trees for the case m > 4. Using a computer algebra system, we can prove these conjectures for m = 5.Comment: 11 pages, to appear in Journal of Symbolic Computatio