Divisors and harmonic morphisms on metric graphs of pseudocompact type

Abstract

A metric graph is of pseudocompact type if identifying parallel edges produces a tree. We give a constructive proof that, for such graphs, divisorial $d$-gonality is equivalent to the existence of a degree $d$ harmonic morphism to a tree. This mirrors the algebraic correspondence, for curves of compact type, between limit linear series of dimension one and admissible covers. We also deduce lifting results for positive-rank divisors, with a genus-preserving refinement when identifying parallel edges produces a path. Finally, we study the Brill-Noether theory in the path case.

14 pages, 1 figure; comments welcome