Canonical semi-rings of finite graphs and tropical curves

Abstract

For a projective curve $C$ and the canonical divisor $K_C$ on $C$, it is classically known that the canonical ring $R(C) = \oplus_{m=0}^\infty H^0(C, m K_C)$ is finitely generated in degree at most three. In this article, we study whether analogous statements hold for finite graphs and tropical curves. For any finite graph $G$, we show that the canonical semi-ring $R(G)$ is finitely generated but that the degree of generators are not bounded by a universal constant. For any hyperelliptic tropical curve $\Gamma$ with integer edge-length, we show that the canonical semi-ring $R(\Gamma)$ is not finitely generated, and, for tropical curves with integer edge-length in general, we give a sufficient condition for non-finite generation.