Moduli dimensions of lattice polygons

Abstract

Given a lattice polygon $P$ with $g$ interior lattice points, we associate to it the moduli space of tropical curves of genus $g$ with Newton polygon $P$. We completely classify the possible dimensions such a moduli space can have. For non-hyperelliptic polygons the dimension must be between $g$ and $2g+1$, and can take on any integer value in this range, with exceptions only in the cases of genus $3$, $4$, and $7$. We provide a similar result for hyperelliptic polygons, for which the range of dimensions is from $g$ to $2g-1$. In the case of non-hyperelliptic polygons, our results also hold for the moduli space of algebraic curves that are non-degenerate with respect to $P$.