paper

Moduli of algebraic and tropical curves

arXiv:1301.0474

Abstract

This is mostly* a non-technical exposition of the joint work arXiv:1212.0373 with Caporaso and Payne. Topics include: Moduli of Riemann surfaces / algebraic curves; Deligne-Mumford compactification; Dual graphs and the combinatorics of the compactification; Tropical curves and their moduli; Non-archimedean geometry and comparison. * Maybe the last section is technical.

14 pages, 11 figures. This text accompanies the author's De Giorgi Colloquium Lecture at the Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, May 22, 2012