UNIVERSALITY FOR TROPICAL AND LOGARITHMIC MAPS

GABRIEL CORRIGAN, NAVID NABIJOU, DAN SIMMS

arXiv:2211.15719v3 [math.AG] 20 Mar 2024

A BSTRACT. We prove that every toric monoid appears in a space of maps from tropical curves
to an orthant. It follows that spaces of logarithmic maps to Artin fans exhibit arbitrary toric
singularities: a virtual universality theorem for logarithmic maps to pairs. The target rank
depends on the chosen singularity: we show that the cone over the 7-gon never appears in a
space of maps to a rank-1 target. We obtain similar results for tropical maps to affine space.

C ONTENTS

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1. Preliminaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Universality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3. Boundedness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

I NTRODUCTION

Mnëv universality — also known as Murphy’s or Vakil’s law — asserts that a given class of
moduli spaces exhibits arbitrary singularities. It is known to hold in many important cases,
including incidence schemes, Hilbert schemes, Chow varieties, and moduli of toric vector
bundles [Mnë85,Mnë88,Vak06,LV13,Pay08,KP11,Erm12,Jel20,BJLR18,Uts20,APT15,AP16].
Spaces of stable maps satisfy universality [Vak06]. But while they can be arbitrarily singu-
lar, they are always “virtually” smooth: a space of stable maps admits a perfect obstruction
theory [BF97, LT98] which controls deformations and furnishes the space with many “vir-
tual” structures analogous to those found on a smooth variety: fundamental class [BM96],
torus localisation [GP99], Hirzebruch–Riemann–Roch theorem [FG10] and so on. These vir-
tual structures play a central role in Gromov–Witten theory.
Recent years have witnessed the ascendance of logarithmic Gromov–Witten theory and
the associated moduli spaces of stable logarithmic maps [GS13, Che14, AC14]. This class of
moduli spaces includes ordinary stable maps, hence automatically satisfies universality.
On the virtual level, however, there is a crucial difference: the obstruction theory for the
space of stable logarithmic maps is defined relative to the space of prestable logarithmic
maps to the Artin fan [AW18, Proposition 6.3.1]
Log(X|D) → Log(AX|D ).
1
2 GABRIEL CORRIGAN, NAVID NABIJOU, DAN SIMMS

The stack Log(AX|D ) is irreducible, so virtual pullback furnishes Log(X|D) with a virtual
fundamental class [Man12]. However Log(AX|D ) is not in general smooth, or even virtually
smooth. As a result, Log(X|D) does not admit a perfect obstruction theory in the absolute
sense. This marks a sharp departure from the theory of ordinary stable maps.

0.1. Universality. A basic question arises: which singularities does Log(AX|D ) exhibit? Equiv-
alently: which “virtual singularities” does Log(X|D) exhibit?
The question is not only of theoretical interest: virtual singularities pose novel technical
difficulties — e.g. for torus localisation [Gra19] and logarithmic intersection theory [MR21]
— so it is worthwhile investigating their complexity.
Though Log(AX|D ) is singular, it carries a logarithmic structure with respect to which
it is logarithmically smooth [AW18, Proposition 1.6.1]. It follows that it has at worst toric
singularities. The main result of this paper is that it exhibits arbitrary toric singularities. This
is a (virtual, toric) universality theorem for logarithmic maps.
Theorem A (Theorem 2.7). Every toric singularity appears in a moduli space of prestable log-
arithmic maps Log(An ), where A = [A1 /Gm ] and n ∈ N (depending on the singularity). This
phenomenon occurs already for genus zero source curves.

The proof is tropical. Given a prestable logarithmic map to An the associated discrete
data is recorded in a tropical type of map to Rn+ (Definition 1.3). This tropical type defines
a toric monoid, whose corresponding affine toric variety gives the local singularity type of
Log(An ) (Proposition 1.12). Hence Theorem A follows immediately from:
Theorem B (Theorem 2.4). Given a toric monoid P there exists an n ∈ N and a representable
tropical type of map to Rn+ whose associated tropical monoid is P . Moreover we may choose a tropical
type with genus zero source curve.

To prove this, we start with an arbitrary presentation of the monoid P . We then modify it
to a presentation which is both “bipartite” and “positive” (Definitions 2.1 and 2.2). Bipartite
means that the generators can be partitioned into two sets
G = G1 ⊔ G2
such that elements of G1 only appear on left-hand sides of relations and elements of G2 only
appear on right-hand sides. Positive simply means that none of the generators are zero.
After reducing to a bipartite and positive presentation (Proposition 2.3), we then build a
tropical type whose shape mirrors the special structure of this presentation (see the proof of
Theorem 2.4). The source graph Γ consists of two paths, whose edges are indexed by the
generators belonging to the two sets G1 , G2 . The relations are encoded in a single continuity
equation in a high-dimensional tropical target Rn+ . Here n depends on P and is the number
of relations in the chosen bipartite and positive presentation.
While we focus on tropical maps to orthants, our techniques also establish universality
for tropical maps to affine spaces; see Section 2.4.

0.2. Boundedness. As remarked, in our construction the target rank n depends on the cho-
sen monoid P . We do not know whether this dependence is essential:
Question C (Question 3.1). Does there exist a single n ∈ N such that every toric monoid
appears as the tropical monoid associated to some tropical type of map to Rn+ ?
 UNIVERSALITY FOR TROPICAL AND LOGARITHMIC MAPS 3

In Section 3 we prove that n = 1 does not suffice:

Theorem D (Theorem 3.17). For k > 7 the cone over a k-gon does not appear as the tropical
monoid associated to any tropical type of map to R+ .

The proof strategy is to bound both the rank and the minimal number of generators of
a tropical monoid in terms of the number of vertices of the source graph. This leads to a
contradiction when the rank is much smaller than the minimal number of generators, as
happens for cones over polygons with large numbers of edges.
In the opposite direction we also show (Theorem 3.12) that every rank-2 monoid does
appear as the monoid associated to a tropical type of map to R+ . The argument is quite
subtle, with saturation playing an essential role (see Example 3.13). We hope that the ideas
developed there will shed light on Question C for n > 2.

0.3. Sources and targets. In the enumerative geometry of logarithmic and tropical curves,
there is a tension between two types of complexity (see [BNR22, Section 0.1]):
• Source complexity: genus of the source curve.
• Target complexity: rank of the target.
Together our results show that, at least as far as singularities of the moduli space are con-
cerned, target complexity is the more fundamental obstruction: with trivial source genus
and arbitrary target rank we obtain all toric monoids (Theorem B), but with arbitrary source
genus and trivial target rank we do not (Theorem D).

0.4. Context. This paper forms part of a broader research direction: investigating the ge-
ometry of moduli spaces of logarithmic maps. The present paper focuses on local aspects;
for recent progress on global aspects, see [Ran17, Kan23, KNSZ22].
Spaces of logarithmic maps form a rich class of modular toroidal embeddings, and as
such their geometry is of intrinsic interest. In addition, this direction has produced novel
approaches to enumerative problems [NR22, BNR22].
As already remarked, virtual singularities pose unique technical challenges. In many
cases — e.g. for virtual localisation or applications of Fulton’s blowup formula — these are
circumvented, either explicitly or implicitly, by passing to a resolution. Our results imply
that, in principle, this step is as complicated as the full toric resolution algorithm.
It is currently unknown whether there exists a general-purpose modular desingularisa-
tion of the space of logarithmic maps. For maps to A such a desingularisation is provided
by the space of maps to expansions, which is described tropically as the space of image-
ordered maps to R+ (see e.g. [BNR21, Section 3.1]). For maps to An the analogous space
depends on combinatorial choices [Ran22, MR20] and it is natural to wonder whether there
is a choice which produces smooth moduli. It follows from our results that such a putative
moduli space would automatically implement resolution of arbitrary toric singularities.

Notation. For a positive integer n we set [n] := {1, . . . , n}. We let Rn+ denote the rational
polyhedral cone Rn>0 with Zn as the underlying lattice.
To declutter notation, we write Log(X|D) for a space of stable logarithmic maps and
Log(AX|D ) for a space of prestable logarithmic maps to the Artin fan. Stability, however,
plays no essential role: all results concerning the singularities of moduli spaces apply whether
or not we impose stability.
4 GABRIEL CORRIGAN, NAVID NABIJOU, DAN SIMMS

Acknowledgements. We thank Luca Battistella and Dhruv Ranganathan for inspiring con-
versations. G.C. is indebted to Jacqueline Jones for her sustained dedication and support,
without whom he would not have had many opportunities for which he is grateful.
This work took place during July–August 2022, as part of the “Research in the CMS”
undergraduate summer research program at the University of Cambridge. We thank the
DPMMS Bursary Fund, the Herchel Smith Fund, and Gonville and Caius College for finan-
cial support.

1. P RELIMINARIES

The purpose of this section is to establish conventions and set notation. Detailed treatments
of the material can be found in the following references: for monoids, [Ogu18, Part I]; for
logarithmic and tropical maps, [ACGS20, Section 2.5]; for Artin fans, [ACM+ 16, Section 5]
and [AW18].

1.1. Presentations of monoids. A monoid is a set with a single binary operation, satisfying
all the axioms of an abelian group except the existence of inverses. A monoid presentation
is a pair (G|R) where G is a finite generating set and
R ⊆ NG × NG
is a finite relation set. All monoids will be assumed finitely-presented. We often write
(w1 = w2 ) ∈ R
to denote the pair (w1 , w2 ) ∈ R. The presentation (G|R) defines a monoid NG /R as the
colimit
w1
NR NG NG /R.
w2
For a discussion of limits and colimits of monoids, see [Ogu18, Chapter I.1.1]. A monoid
is toric if it is finitely-generated, torsion-free, integral, saturated, and sharp; for a list of
terminology see [Che14, Appendix A]. Toric monoids are precisely those of the form
P = σ∨ ∩ M
where M is a lattice and σ ⊆ MR∨ is a strictly convex rational polyhedral cone of full di-
mension. The association P ↔ σ is a duality. Every finitely-generated monoid P admits a
torification
P → P tor
which is the universal toric monoid to which P maps. This construction is functorial, form-
ing a left adjoint to the inclusion of the full subcategory of toric monoids.
Definition 1.1. Given a monoid presentation (G|R), the associated toric monoid is the tori-
fication of NG /R.
Remark 1.2. The precise order of operations for torification is as follows:
(1) Integralise and remove torsion. This is achieved in a single step by replacing the
monoid by its image in the torsion-free part of its groupification.
(2) Saturate. It follows immediately from the definitions that this preserves integrality
and torsion-freeness.
(3) Sharpen. This preserves integrality, torsion-freeness and saturatedness by [Ogu18,
Propositions I.1.3.3 and I.1.3.5(4)].
 UNIVERSALITY FOR TROPICAL AND LOGARITHMIC MAPS 5

During this process, saturation is the only step where the minimal number of generators can
increase, and sharpening is the only step where the rank of the groupification can change.
These facts will be used in Section 3.
Removing torsion in (1) is in fact unnecessary, since the sharpening in (3) also guaran-
tees this. We keep the redundancy to align more closely with the existing literature; see
Remark 1.7.

1.2. Tropical maps. We focus on tropical maps to orthants, as these are the tropicalisations
of logarithmic maps to pairs; further details can be found in [ACGS20, Section 2.5]. How-
ever, our arguments also apply to tropical maps to affine spaces (see Section 2.4).
Consider the strictly convex rational polyhedral cone
Rn+ := (σ = Rn>0 , N = Zn ).
Definition 1.3. A tropical type of map to Rn+ consists of the following data:
(1) A finite connected graph Γ consisting of vertices, edges and semi-infinite legs. Each
leg l ∈ L(Γ) carries an index label il ∈ [m] and each vertex v ∈ V (Γ) carries genus
and multi-degree labels
gv ∈ N, dv ∈ Zn .

(2) To every vertex, edge and leg of Γ an associated face of Rn+

v σv , e σe , l σl
such that if v 6 e then σv 6 σe for every vertex v and adjacent edge or leg e.
(3) For every oriented edge or leg ~e a slope vector
m~e ∈ Zn
contained in the linear space spanned by σe and satisfying m~e = −me~.
These data are required to satisfy the balancing condition at each vertex: for every v ∈ V (Γ)
X
dv = m~e
v6~
e

where the sum is over adjacent edges and legs, all oriented away from v. The balancing
condition uniquely determines the dv in terms of the m~e .

1.3. Tropical monoids. Fix a tropical type τ. There is an associated tropical moduli cone
parametrising maps
f : ⊏ → Rn+
of type τ. Here ⊏ is a metric enhancement of Γ and the map f is constrained to have slope m~e
along every oriented edge and leg. Following [GS13] we formulate the discussion in terms
of the toric monoid dual to the tropical moduli cone.
Notation 1.4. Given a set I ⊆ [n] we let
σI 6 Rn+
denote the face spanned by the standard basis vectors {ei : i ∈ I}. For every vertex v ∈ V (Γ)
let I(v) ⊆ [n] denote the set with σI(v) = σv and similarly for edges and legs.
6 GABRIEL CORRIGAN, NAVID NABIJOU, DAN SIMMS

Definition 1.5. Given a tropical type τ, the corresponding tropical presentation (Gτ |Rτ ) is
defined as follows. Generators are given by the symbols
Gτ := {ℓe : e ∈ E(Γ)} ⊔ {f(v)i : v ∈ V (Γ), i ∈ I(v)}.
Here ℓe is the length of the finite edge e, and the vector (f(v)i : i ∈ I(v)) is the position
f(v) ∈ σI(v) of the vertex v.
The relations in Rτ are indexed by pairs (~e, i) where ~e is an oriented edge and i ∈ I(e).
The associated relation is
(1) f(v2 )i = f(v1 )i + (m~e )i ℓe
where ~e starts at v1 and ends at v2 . Here (m~e )i is the component of the vector m~e ∈ Zn in the
direction i ∈ I(e) ⊆ [n]. This relation imposes that f has slope m~e along ~e.
Note that (m~e )i ∈ Z, whilst f(v2 )i , f(v1 )i , ℓe ∈ Gτ are all generators. If (m~e )i < 0 then
we rearrange the relation so that all coefficients are non-negative. If it happens that the
containment σvj 6 σe is strict, then for i ∈ I(e) \ I(vj ) we replace f(vj )i by 0 in (1).
Definition 1.6. The tropical monoid Pτ is the toric monoid associated to the tropical pre-
sentation (Gτ |Rτ ), in the sense of Definition 1.1.
Remark 1.7. The tropical monoid defined above is the sharpening of the basic monoid de-
fined in [GS13, Construction 1.16]. In Gross–Siebert’s construction, saturating the relations
amounts to taking the torsion-free part of the monoid, while quotienting the groupifica-
tion and taking the image of the prequotient amounts to integralising. Note that Gross–
Siebert’s basic monoid is not always sharp, though it is when the tropical type is repre-
sentable (see [GS13, Proposition 1.19] and Lemma 3.9 below). For Theorem B we are only
interested in monoid presentations (G|R) such that NG /R is sharp, so whether or not we
sharpen at the end is unimportant.
1.4. Representability. Tropical types record the combinatorial data of a tropical map. How-
ever, not all tropical types arise in this way.
Definition 1.8. A tropical type τ is representable if there exists a map
f: ⊏ → Rn+
where ⊏ is a metric enhancement of Γ with strictly positive edge lengths, and f is a map
with slope m~e along every oriented edge and leg, such that
f(RelInt(p)) ⊆ RelInt(σp )
for all polyhedra p ∈ V (Γ) ⊔ E(Γ) ⊔ L(Γ).
Remark 1.9. It is essential to impose that all edge lengths are strictly positive and that the
relative interior of p is mapped to the relative interior of σp . Otherwise, every tropical type
would be trivially representable, by setting all edge lengths to zero and letting f be the map
collapsing ⊏ to the point 0 ∈ Rn+ .
Remark 1.10. Representability is referred to as smoothability in [BNR22, Section 3.4]. This
notion should not be confused with realisability, which is typically a condition on individual
tropical maps rather than tropical types (see e.g. [Spe14, RSPW19]).
Lemma 1.11. A tropical type is representable if and only if there exists a monoid morphism
u : Pτ → R+
which is non-zero on the generators ℓe and f(v)i appearing in Definition 1.5.
 UNIVERSALITY FOR TROPICAL AND LOGARITHMIC MAPS 7

Proof. The given presentation of Pτ gives an inclusion of rational polyhedral cones

Y Y Y
Hom(Pτ , R+ ) ֒→ R + ℓ∨
e × R+ f(v)∨
i
e∈E(Γ) v∈V (Γ) i∈I(v)

which realises Hom(Pτ , R+ ) as the tropical moduli cone associated to τ. Every

u ∈ Hom(Pτ , R+ )
thus determines a metric enhancement of Γ together with a map f to Rn+ . The condition
that u is non-zero on generators is then precisely the condition that the edge lengths are
strictly positive and that f maps the relative interior of every p into the relative interior of
the associated cone σp . 

1.5. Logarithmic maps and Artin fans. Let (X|D) be a normal crossings pair. This means
that, étale locally, the pair (X|D) is isomorphic to affine space equipped with a collection of
coordinate hyperplanes. The Artin fan
AX|D
is a smooth toric Artin stack of pure dimension zero. There is a smooth morphism X →
AX|D which identifies the strata of (X|D) with the toric strata of AX|D . The Artin fan has an
open cover by stacks of the form An where
A := [A1 /Gm ].
There is a pushforward morphism on spaces of logarithmic maps
Log(X|D) → Log(AX|D )
where AX|D carries the toric logarithmic structure. This morphism is equipped with a rela-
tive perfect obstruction theory. This identifies the virtual singularities of Log(X|D) with the
actual singularities of Log(AX|D ). The latter are controlled by tropical combinatorics:
Proposition 1.12. Let τ be a tropical type of map to Rn+ . If τ is representable, there exists a logarith-
mic map to the Artin fan
C → An
whose tropicalisation has type τ. In a neighbourhood of this map, the moduli space Log(An ) has
singularity type Spec k[Pτ ] where Pτ is the tropical monoid corresponding to τ.

Proof. Let Γ be the dual graph encoded in the tropical type τ. In the tropical presentation
(Gτ |Rτ ) given in Definition 1.5, there is a natural inclusion E(Γ) ⊆ Gτ as the edge length
generators ℓe . This gives rise to a homomorphism

v : NE(Γ) → Pτ .
By Lemma 1.11 and the representability assumption it follows that v is sharp, i.e. we have
v −1 (0) = 0. Sharpness is a necessary and sufficient condition for a morphism of toric
monoids to lift to a morphism of logarithmic points. Hence we may choose an arbitrary
such lift
 
(2) (Spec k, Pτ ) → Spec k, NE(Γ) .
8 GABRIEL CORRIGAN, NAVID NABIJOU, DAN SIMMS

Now take C to be any algebraic curve with dual graph Γ. The logarithmic structure on the
space of prestable curves produces a universal enhancement of C to a logarithmic curve
over the logarithmic point  
Spec k, NE(Γ) .
Pulling back along (2) then produces a logarithmic curve
C

(Spec k, Pτ )
which tropicalises to a family of tropical curves, which is a morphism of cone complexes
⊏
(3)
Hom(Pτ , R+ ).
It is well-known (see e.g. [ACGS20, Proposition 2.10]) that logarithmic morphisms C → An
correspond to cone complex morphisms ⊏ → Rn+ . We construct the latter directly, working
fibrewise with respect to (3). By the definition of the generators of Pτ a point
u ∈ Hom(Pτ , R+ )
defines edge lengths ℓe > 0 for e ∈ E(Γ) and vertex positions f(v) ∈ σv for v ∈ V (Γ). This
defines the morphism ⊏u → Rn+ on the fibre over u. The relations in the definition of Pτ
ensure that this map has integral slopes along edges, which in turn ensures that these fibre-
wise morphisms glue to a global morphism of cone complexes. This produces the desired
diagram
⊏ Rn+

Hom(Pτ , R+ ).
We have thus shown that there exists a logarithmic map to An with tropical type τ.
The space Log(An ) is logarithmically smooth over the trivial logarithmic point [AW18,
Proposition 1.6.1]. Hence its singularities are governed by its charts, which are given by the
tropical monoids Pτ (see [GS13, Definition 1.20] and Remark 1.7). 
Remark 1.13. More generally, in Proposition 1.12 we may replace Rn+ by any cone complex
Σ and An by the Artin fan AΣ .

2. U NIVERSALITY

Given a toric monoid P we wish to construct a representable tropical type τ with Pτ =

P . The strategy is to choose a special presentation (G|R) of P and to construct τ from the
combinatorics of this presentation.
We begin in Section 2.1 by showing that we can always find a presentation which is both
“bipartite” and “positive”. Then in Section 2.2 we give the main construction, building
a tropical type which mirrors the structure of this special presentation. In Section 2.3 we
 UNIVERSALITY FOR TROPICAL AND LOGARITHMIC MAPS 9

present applications to singularities of spaces of logarithmic maps, and finally in Section 2.4
we adapt our construction to deal with tropical maps to affine spaces.

2.1. Presentation surgery. We show that every monoid presentation can be replaced by one
of a very specific form.
Definition 2.1. A presentation (G|R) is bipartite if there exists a partition of the generators
G = G1 ⊔ G2
such that every relation in R is of the form (w1 = w2 ) where w1 is a word in the elements of
G1 and w2 is a word in the elements of G2 .
Definition 2.2. A presentation (G|R) is positive if under the quotient homomorphism
π : NG → NG /R
we have π(g) 6= 0 for all g ∈ G, where by abuse of notation g ∈ NG denotes the associated
standard generator.
Proposition 2.3. Every presentation (G|R) can be replaced by a presentation (G′ |R′ ) which is
bipartite and positive, and induces the same monoid:
′
NG /R′ = NG /R.

Proof. For each g ∈ G introduce two symbols g1 , g2 and define

G1 := {g1 : g ∈ G}, G2 := {g2 : g ∈ G}.
Set G′= G1 ⊔ G2 . For every relation in R replace each appearance of g on the left-hand
side by g1 and each appearance of g on the right-hand side by g2 . Let R′ be the set of such
relations, together with the relations g1 = g2 for all g ∈ G. The presentation (G′ |R′ ) is then
bipartite and satisfies
′
NG /R′ = NG /R.
It remains to replace an arbitrary bipartite presentation (G|R) with a bipartite and positive
presentation (G′ |R′ ). Let
G0 = {g ∈ G : π(g) = 0}
′ ′
and set G = G \ G0 . Define R by taking each relation in R and removing all appearances of
elements g ∈ G0 . The presentation (G′ |R′ ) is still bipartite. To show that it induces the same
monoid, consider the composite
′
→ NG /R.
NG ֒→ NG −
π

′
Since π(g) = 0 for g ∈ G0 it follows that the map NG → NG /R is surjective.
We now show that this map respects R′ . Given (w1 , w2 ) ∈ R′ its image in NG ×NG belongs
to R up to adding elements of G0 to both sides. Hence w1 and w2 map to the same element
′
of NG /R and so the map NG → NG /R respects R′ . It follows that there is a surjective
homomorphism
′
(4) NG /R′ → NG /R.
′
It remains to show that it is injective. Consider u, v ∈ NG mapped to the same point in
NG /R. By [Ogu18, Proposition I.1.1.3(2)] this means there there exists a sequence
p0 , . . . , pn ∈ N G
10 GABRIEL CORRIGAN, NAVID NABIJOU, DAN SIMMS

such that p0 = u, pn = v and for i ∈ [n] either (pi−1 , pi ) or (pi , pi−1 ) belongs to the set

R+ = (w1 + c, w2 + c) : (w1 , w2 ) ∈ R, c ∈ NG .

′
For p ∈ NG let p′ ∈ NG denote the image under the projection. Then p′0 = u′ = u, p′n = v ′ = v
and if (pi−1 , pi ) = (w1 + c, w2 + c) ∈ R+ then

(p′i−1 , p′i ) = (w1′ + c′ , w2′ + c′ ) ∈ R+

′

′
and similarly for (pi , pi−1 ). Hence the sequence p′0 , . . . , p′n ∈ NG witnesses the identity u = v
′
in NG /R′ . We conclude that (4) is injective, and hence there is an isomorphism

NG /R′ ∼
′
(5) = NG /R.

This isomorphism fits into a commuting square

′
NG NG
π′ π
∼
=
G′
N /R′ NG /R

from which it follows that π′ (g) 6= 0 for all g ∈ G′ , so (G′ |R′ ) is positive, as required. 

2.2. Main construction. We come to the main result.

Theorem 2.4 (Theorem B). Let P be an arbitrary toric monoid. Then there exists an n ∈ N
(depending on P ) and a representable tropical type τ of map to Rn+ such that

P = Pτ .

Moreover the tropical type can be chosen with g(Γ) = 0.

Proof. By Proposition 2.3 we may choose a bipartite and positive presentation (G|R) of P .
Since by assumption P is toric, it is the toric monoid associated to (G|R). By Definition 1.6
it suffices to find a representable tropical type τ whose associated tropical presentation
(Gτ |Rτ ) coincides with (G|R).
Since the presentation is bipartite we have G = G1 ⊔ G2 , with elements of G1 only ap-
pearing on the left-hand side of relations in R, and elements of G2 only appearing on the
right-hand side. Write

G1 = {g1 , . . . , gk1 }, G2 = {gk1 +1 , . . . , gk1 +k2 }

 UNIVERSALITY FOR TROPICAL AND LOGARITHMIC MAPS 11

and let Γ be the following graph, with edges labeled by the generators g ∈ G
v1 v2

g1 gk1 +1

g2 gk1 +2

(6)
.. ..
. .

gk1 gk1 +k2

v0
so that the path from vi to v0 contains precisely the generators in Gi . To incorporate the
relations, set n := |R|. We will define a tropical type of map to Rn+ with source graph Γ. For
g ∈ G let ~g be the corresponding edge oriented as in (6), and define the corresponding slope
m~g ∈ Zn
as follows: for i ∈ [n], the component (m~g )i is defined to be the coefficient with which g
appears in the ith relation of R. Note that we always have
(m~g )i > 0.
For v ∈ V (Γ) define
dv ∈ Zn
as the sum of the slopes of the adjacent edges (oriented away from v), so that the balancing
condition is satisfied. To define the cones associated to vertices, we first set
σv1 = σv2 = 0 6 Rn+ .
The other cones σv are defined recursively by flowing along the oriented graph (6). If ~g is an
oriented edge from v to v ′ and if I(v) ⊆ [n] is already determined, define
I(v ′ ) := I(v) ∪ {i ∈ [n] : (m~g )i > 0}.
This recursively defines the indexing sets I(v) and hence the cones σv = σI(v) . For an edge
g ∈ E(Γ) connecting v and v ′ we declare I(g) := I(v) ∪ I(v ′ ). We only need to check
consistency at v0 . We claim that whether we approach from v1 or from v2 , we must have
(7) σv0 = Rn+ .
Indeed, each index i ∈ [n] corresponds to a relation in R. Since the presentation is positive
and the monoid is sharp, it follows that this relation must have a generator on each side
with a strictly positive coefficient, guaranteeing (7).
This completes the description of the tropical type τ. By design, the associated tropical
presentation (Gτ |Rτ ) coincides with the initial presentation (G|R) and so Pτ = P as required.
It remains to show that τ is representable. By Lemma 1.11 it is equivalent to show that
there exists a monoid morphism
u : Pτ → R+
which is non-zero on the standard generators appearing in Definition 1.5. For the tropical
type we have constructed, it is enough for this morphism to be non-zero on the generators
12 GABRIEL CORRIGAN, NAVID NABIJOU, DAN SIMMS

gi corresponding to the edge lengths; indeed, by the structure of the cone assignments σv ,
this implies that the relative interior of every vertex and edge is mapped into the relative
interior of the corresponding cone.
By assumption the monoid P is toric, so it includes into the lattice M := P gp as
P = σ∨ ∩ M
where σ is a strictly convex rational polyhedral cone of full dimension in the dual vector
space MR∨ . Since σ has full dimension, σ∨ is strictly convex, i.e. it contains the origin as
a face, so there exists a normal vector u ∈ MR∨ with P ⊆ {u > 0} and P ∩ {u = 0} = 0.
Therefore u restricts to a monoid morphism
u : P → R+
with u−1 (0) = 0. Since the presentation is positive it follows that u(gi ) 6= 0 for all gi ∈ G. We
conclude that τ is representable. 
Remark 2.5. Since P is assumed toric, the presentation (G|R) already gives rise to a toric
monoid and so the torification step in the construction of Pτ is redundant. However, torifi-
cation plays an important and subtle role in the boundedness results of Section 3.
Example 2.6. Consider the following strictly convex rational polyhedral cone σ∨ ⊆ R2

σ∨
(1, 3)

(1, 2)

(1, 1)

(1, 0)

and let P = σ∨ ∩ Z2 be the monoid of lattice points. Set

e0 = (1, 0), e1 = (1, 1), e2 = (1, 2), e3 = (1, 3).
Then P is generated by e0 , e1 , e2 , e3 subject to the relations
e0 + e2 = 2e1
e1 + e3 = 2e2
e0 + e3 = e1 + e2 .
To construct a corresponding tropical type, we first replace the above presentation by a
bipartite and positive presentation. This is given by generators G = {e0 , e1 , e2 , e3 , f1 , f2 }
subject to the relations
e0 + f2 = 2e1
f1 + e3 = 2e2
e0 + e3 = e1 + e2
f1 = e1
f2 = e2
 UNIVERSALITY FOR TROPICAL AND LOGARITHMIC MAPS 13

so that G1 = {e0 , e3 , f1 , f2 } and G2 = {e1 , e2 }. Since there are 5 relations we consider maps
to R5+ and produce the following tropical type, with slope vectors m~e indicated in blue:

(1, 0, 1, 0, 0) e0

(0, 1, 1, 0, 0) e3

(0, 1, 0, 1, 0) f1 e1 (2, 0, 1, 1, 0)

f2 e2
(1, 0, 0, 0, 1) (0, 2, 1, 0, 1)

2.3. Singularities of moduli. Theorem 2.4 establishes universality for moduli spaces of
tropical maps. The algebraic analogues of tropical maps are logarithmic maps to Artin fans,
and so we immediately obtain the following:
Theorem 2.7 (Theorem A). Every toric singularity appears in a moduli space Log(An ) of (genus
zero) prestable logarithmic maps to the Artin fan, for some n ∈ N depending on the singularity.

Proof. Since toric singularities are classified by toric monoids, the claim follows from Theo-
rem 2.4 and Proposition 1.12. 

2.4. Variations on a theme: tropical maps to affine spaces. We now study tropical maps
⊏ → Rn
where the target Rn does not carry any fan structure. These arise as tropicalisations of maps
to an algebraic torus over a field with a real valuation [Mik05, NS06].
Tropical types of such maps are defined exactly as in Definition 1.3, except that we do not
include the data of cones σp associated to polyhedra p ∈ V (Γ) ⊔ E(Γ) ⊔ L(Γ) and we set all
dv = 0. The latter assumption results in the classical balancing condition
X
m~e = 0.
v6~
e

We consider moduli of such maps up to overall target translation. As in Definition 1.6, each
tropical type determines a moduli cone, defined equivalently via its dual monoid as follows.
Definition 2.8. The tropical presentation associated to a tropical type τ of map to Rn has
generating set indexed by the edge lengths
Gτ := {ℓe : e ∈ E(Γ)}.
The relations Rτ are defined as follows. Given an oriented cycle γ of edges in Γ we consider
the expression
X
m~e ℓe = 0.
~
e∈γ
Here each m~e ∈ Zn and so this expression gives n relations amongst the generators ℓe .
Each such relation can be uniquely rearranged into a relation with non-negative coefficients.
These constitute the set Rτ . The tropical monoid Pτ is by definition the toric monoid asso-
ciated to the presentation (Gτ |Rτ ).
14 GABRIEL CORRIGAN, NAVID NABIJOU, DAN SIMMS

Remark 2.9. We can also consider tropical maps to Rn without identifying maps up to
overall translation. In this case we simply replace the tropical monoid Pτ by the product
Pτ × Zn . Since Spec k[Zn ] = Gnm is smooth, this does not affect the singularity type in the
sense of [Vak06, Section 1].

We now establish universality for tropical maps to affine spaces. Unlike in Theorem 2.4,
we cannot produce all toric monoids using only source graphs of genus zero. Indeed, if Γ
contains no cycles then Definition 2.8 simply gives
Pτ = NE(Γ) .
Nevertheless, we will see that it is sufficient to use source graphs of genus one. The proof
illustrates a general principle: higher-genus continuity relations for tropical maps to affine
spaces are equivalent to genus-zero continuity relations for tropical maps to orthants. This
is due to the constraints on the image cones imposed in the latter case. This same principle
is lurking in the discussion of monogenic types in Section 3.1.1; see in particular the proof
of Proposition 3.6.
Theorem 2.10. Let P be an arbitrary toric monoid. Then there exists an n ∈ N and a representable
tropical type τ of map to Rn such that P = Pτ . The tropical type can be chosen with g(Γ) = 1.

Proof. Run the construction given in the proof of Theorem 2.4. This produces a tropical type
of map to Rn+ whose tropical monoid is isomorphic to P and whose source graph Γ takes
the form (6). Note that g(Γ) = 0.
Now glue together the leaf vertices v1 , v2 ∈ V (Γ) and forget all cones σp . To remove the
multi-degrees at the vertices, attach to each v ∈ V (Γ) a semi-infinite leg lv and set
m~lv := −dv .
Such semi-infinite legs are referred to as τ-rays in the literature. Finally set dv = 0 and
observe that the balancing condition is still satisfied at v.
This produces a tropical type τ of map to Rn satisfying the balancing condition and with
g(Γ) = 1. The relations arising from the single cycle of Γ produce the same relations as in
the proof of Theorem 2.4. 
Remark 2.11 (Embedded tropical curves). In contrast to tropical maps, the moduli space of
embedded tropical curves (either in Rn+ or in Rn ) is only well-defined as a cone complex
up to further subdivision. The issue is the same as that which arises when defining moduli
spaces of embedded 1-complexes [MR20, Section 3].
As such, the universality problem is not well-posed. Every toric monoid P is trivially
obtained from some moduli space of embedded tropical curves: simply take one such moduli
space, resolve singularities and then subdivide so that one of the cones becomes isomorphic
to the dual cone of P .

3. B OUNDEDNESS

In Theorem 2.4 above, the dimension n of the tropical target depends on the chosen monoid
P (it is the number of relations in a given bipartite and positive presentation of P ). We do
not know whether this dependence is essential:
Question 3.1 (Question C). Does there exist a single n ∈ N such that every toric monoid
appears as the tropical monoid associated to some tropical type of map to Rn+ ?
 UNIVERSALITY FOR TROPICAL AND LOGARITHMIC MAPS 15

We conclude the paper by proving that n = 1 does not suffice. We show that while every
rank-2 monoid does appear (Theorem 3.12), there are certain rank-3 monoids which do not
appear (Theorem 3.17).

3.1. Monoid rank. For the rest of the paper, we consider only tropical types of maps to R+ .
We begin by relating the rank of the tropical monoid Pτ to the combinatorics of τ. The main
result of this section is:
Theorem 3.2. Let τ be a representable tropical type of map to R+ . Then there exists another repre-
sentable tropical type τe such that
Pτ = Pτe ⊕ NE0 (Γ)
where E0 (Γ) ⊆ E(Γ) is the set of edges e with m~e = 0. Moreover,
rk Pτegp = |V (Γ)|
e − 1.

3.1.1. Monogenic types. The strategy is to reduce to a special class of tropical types whose
associated monoids can be easily controlled.
Definition 3.3. A tropical type τ is monogenic if the following two conditions hold:
(1) There is precisely one vertex v0 ∈ V (Γ) with σv0 = 0.
(2) For every other vertex v 6= v0 there exists at least one adjacent edge e ∈ E(Γ) with
m~e < 0
where ~e is oriented to point away from v.

A monogenic type has a unique root vertex v0 lying over 0 6 R+ . All other vertices can
be reached from v0 along a path of rightward-sloping edges.

Not monogenic Not monogenic Monogenic Monogenic

The tropical monoid associated to a monogenic type has a presentation which is more effi-
cient than the general-purpose presentation given in Definition 1.5.
Definition 3.4. Let τ be a monogenic tropical type of map to R+ . The monogenic presenta-
tion has generating set
Gτ := {ℓe : e ∈ E(Γ)}.
The relations Rτ are indexed by closed cycles of oriented edges in Γ. Given such a cycle γ
we consider the following relation
X
m~e ℓe = 0.
~
e∈γ

Here each m~e ∈ Z. This expression can be uniquely rearranged to ensure that all coefficients
are non-negative, giving the relation in Rτ associated to γ.
16 GABRIEL CORRIGAN, NAVID NABIJOU, DAN SIMMS

The toric monoid associated to the monogenic presentation coincides with the tropical
monoid of Definition 1.6. When dealing with monogenic types we will only ever use the
monogenic presentation; hence we overload notation and also denote it by (Gτ |Rτ ).
Remark 3.5. The monogenic presentation is similar to the tropical presentation associated
to a tropical type of map to affine space; see Definition 2.8.
Proposition 3.6. To every tropical type τ there is an associated monogenic type τe with
Pτ = Pτe.
If τ is representable then so is τe.

Proof. Consider vertices v ∈ V (Γ) which have σv = R+ and are such that m~e > 0 for every
outward-pointing adjacent edge ~e. These vertices violate condition (2) in Definition 3.3.
For every such vertex, introduce a new vertex v ′ with σv′ = 0, and a new edge e con-
necting v ′ to v with slope m~e = 1 where ~e is oriented from v ′ to v. To satisfy the balancing
condition, set dv′ = 1 and replace dv by dv − 1.
This results in a new tropical type which has the same tropical monoid as τ. Moreover
this new tropical type is guaranteed at least one vertex with σv = 0, and is such that all
vertices v with σv = R+ have an adjacent outward-pointing edge ~e with m~e < 0.
Finally, glue together all vertices with σv = 0. This gives a new tropical type τe which is
monogenic and has the same tropical monoid as τ. Clearly τe is representable if τ is. 

The following example illustrates the above process. Note that the genus of Γ increases.

3.1.2. Expansive types.

Definition 3.7. A tropical type τ is expansive if there are no edges e ∈ E(Γ) with m~e = 0.
Proposition 3.8. To every tropical type τ there is an associated monogenic and expansive type τe
with
(8) Pτ = Pτe ⊕ NE0 (Γ)
where E0 (Γ) is the set of edges of slope zero in the tropical type τ. If τ is representable then so is τe.

Proof. First apply Proposition 3.6 to replace τ by a monogenic type, also denoted τ, with
the same tropical monoid. Then contract all edges e ∈ E0 (Γ) and identify vertices of Γ as
necessary (notice that a slope zero edge may be a loop or may have distinct endpoints).
This produces a monogenic and expansive type τe. Since the lengths ℓe of slope zero edges
e ∈ E0 (Γ) are free parameters in Pτ , we immediately conclude (8). Again the representability
statement is clear. 
 UNIVERSALITY FOR TROPICAL AND LOGARITHMIC MAPS 17

3.1.3. Monoid rank. We will now control the rank of the tropical monoid associated to a
monogenic and expansive type. Recall from Definition 1.6 that the tropical monoid Pτ is the
torification of
NGτ /Rτ .
Recall in addition from Remark 1.2 that torification consists of three steps:
(1) integralise and remove torsion;
(2) saturate;
(3) sharpen.
Of these steps, only sharpening can change the rank of the groupification. With this in mind,
the following technical lemma is necessary in order to control the monoid rank.
Lemma 3.9. If τ is a representable tropical type then the final sharpening step in the construction of
Pτ is redundant.

Proof. Let Pτ♭ denote the pre-sharpened monoid and consider the sharpening morphism
w : Pτ♭ → Pτ .
Recall that w is the quotient of Pτ♭ by the subgroup of units [Ogu18, Chapter I.1.3]. Assume
for a contradiction that w is not an isomorphism. Then there exists a non-zero p ∈ Pτ♭ with
w(p) = 0. By assumption τ is representable, so by Lemma 1.11 there exists a morphism
u : Pτ → R+
which is non-zero on the standard generators of Definition 1.5. Since these generate Pτ♭ it
follows that the composite u ◦ w is sharp, i.e. (u ◦ w)−1 (0) = 0. This contradicts w(p) = 0.
There is one caveat in the argument above: the saturation step in the construction of Pτ♭
can introduce additional generators. However these are all Q>0 -linear combinations of the
standard generators, so the same argument applies. 
Remark 3.10. The above lemma essentially appears, in somewhat greater generality, as part
of [GS13, Proposition 1.19].
Theorem 3.11. Let τ be a representable, monogenic and expansive tropical type. Then
rk Pτgp = |V (Γ)| − 1.

Proof. Since τ is representable, Lemma 3.9 shows that the final sharpening step in the con-
struction of Pτ is redundant. The other torification steps — integralising and saturating —
do not change the groupification of the monoid. As such, we may identify Pτgp with the
torsion-free part of the groupification of the not-necessarily-toric monoid
NGτ /Rτ .
The torsion-free part is extracted by saturating the relations Rτ . Since groupification com-
mutes with direct limits [Ogu18, Chapter I.1.3], we conclude that
Pτgp = ZGτ /Rτsat .
Recall we are using the monogenic presentation of Definition 3.4. We have Gτ = E(Γ), while
the relations Rτ are indexed by cycles in Γ. Fix a spanning tree
Γ0 ⊆ Γ.
18 GABRIEL CORRIGAN, NAVID NABIJOU, DAN SIMMS

Let b = b1 (Γ) denote the genus of the graph. Then Γ0 is obtained from Γ by deleting some
edges e1 , . . . , eb . For each i ∈ [b], the graph Γ0 ∪ ei contains a single closed cycle giving rise
to a single relation in Rτ . Since τ is expansive we have m~ei 6= 0 so that the edge length ℓei
appears in this relation with non-zero coefficient.
Taken together, these relations span Rτ over Z. They are linearly independent since each
relation contains a protected variable ℓei which does not appear in any other relation. Be-
cause of this independence, Rτsat is generated by the saturations of the generators of Rτ . We
conclude that it has rank b, and hence


rk Pτgp = rk ZGτ /Rτsat = |E(Γ)| − b1 (Γ) = |V (Γ)| − 1

as required. 

Proof of Theorem 3.2. Combine Proposition 3.8 and Theorem 3.11. 

3.2. Cautionary tale: redemption through saturation. Now consider a toric monoid P with

rk P gp = 2.

Such monoids are given by P = σ∨ ∩ M for M ∼ = Z2 a two-dimensional lattice and σ ⊆ MR∨ a

strictly convex rational polyhedral cone of full dimension in the dual vector space. Assume
that σ is singular, so that P ∼
6 N2 .
=
∼ P then τ must be expansive, since P does
If τ is a representable tropical type with Pτ =
not contain any N factors. By Proposition 3.8 we may therefore assume that τ is monogenic.
From Theorem 3.11 we conclude |V (Γ)| − 1 = rk Pτgp = 2 and so

|V (Γ)| = 3.

Representable, monogenic, expansive tropical types with three vertices are easily enumer-
ated. Those giving rise to singular monoids all essentially take the form

m1 m2

(9)
m3

for some mi > 0. (We can also have parallel edges, but the resulting monoid will be isomor-
phic to one associated to a tropical type with no parallel edges; see Section 3.3.)
On initial inspection, this seems to rule out many monoids: since there are only three
edges, the resulting monoid must be generated by three elements, and there are certainly
monoids of rank two requiring more than three generating elements.
However, this argument overlooks a crucial technical point. The tropical monoid Pτ is
obtained as the torification of the monoid NGτ /Rτ . During this process, the saturation step
in particular can increase the number of generators. In fact, we have:

Theorem 3.12. Let P be a toric monoid with rk P gp = 2. Then there exists a representable tropical
type τ of map to R+ with Pτ ∼
= P . Moreover τ may be taken to be of the form (9).
 UNIVERSALITY FOR TROPICAL AND LOGARITHMIC MAPS 19

Proof. Following [Ful93, Section 2.2], P is isomorphic to the monoid of lattice points σ∨ ∩ M
for a rational polyhedral cone σ∨ ⊆ MR of the form:

(k, m)
σ∨

(1, 0)

This cone is generated by the primitive lattice vectors

v1 = (1, 0), v2 = (k, m)
where 0 < k ≤ m and gcd(k, m) = 1. Choose a lattice vector v3 ∈ σ∨ ∩ M such that
(10) Zv1 + Zv2 + Zv3 = Z2 .
For example, taking v3 = (1, 1) is sufficient. Consider the monoid

Q := Nv1 + Nv2 + Nv3 ⊆ Z2 .

From Qgp = Z2 and Q ⊗ Q>0 = σ∨ ∩ Q2 we conclude Qsat = P . Now consider the surjection
Z3 → Z2
given by ei 7→ vi . The kernel gives a unique nontrivial Z-linear dependence between the vi .
Since v3 belongs to the cone generated by v1 and v2 , this relation must take the form
m1 v1 + m2 v2 = m3 v3
for some mi > 0. This shows that
Q = N3v1 v2 v3 /(m1 v1 + m2 v2 = m3 v3 ).
Then the tropical type (9) gives rise to a monoid presentation (Gτ |Rτ ) with

NGτ /Rτ = Q.
The monoid Q is integral, torsion-free and sharp. As such, torification is equivalent to satu-
ration, giving

sat
Pτ = NGτ /Rτ = Qsat = P
as required. 
Example 3.13. Recall the monoid P from Example 2.6. There we constructed a tropical type
of map to R5+ whose tropical monoid was isomorphic to P . But Theorem 3.12 shows that
in fact P can be obtained from a tropical type of map to R+ of the form (9), in this case by
taking m1 = 2, m2 = 1, m3 = 3. Note that the saturation step in the construction of the
tropical monoid is crucial.
20 GABRIEL CORRIGAN, NAVID NABIJOU, DAN SIMMS

3.3. Unparalleled monoid. We see from Theorem 3.12 that the minimal number of gener-
ators of Pτ is not bounded in terms of |E(Γ)|. This is because saturation can increase the
minimal number of generators. However, given a monoid
Q ⊆ Zr
saturating Q cannot increase the number of extremal rays of the cone Q ⊗ R+ . This is the key
insight which leads to the proof of Theorem 3.17, and which we formalise in this section.
Fix a representable, monogenic, expansive tropical type τ and let (Gτ |Rτ ) be the associ-
ated monogenic presentation of Definition 3.4.
Definition 3.14. The unparalleled presentation associated to τ is constructed from (Gτ |Rτ )
as follows. For every adjacent pair of vertices v1 , v2 ∈ V (Γ) define
mv1 v2 := lcm {|m~e | : e ∈ E(Γ) connecting v1 and v2 } ∈ N.
Introduce a new generator ℓv1 v2 for each such pair, together with the new relations
mv1 v2
ℓv v = ℓe
|m~e | 1 2
for each e ∈ E(Γ) connecting v1 and v2 .
∦
Definition 3.15. The unparalleled monoid Pτ is the integralisation and torsion-free part of
the monoid associated to the unparalleled presentation.
Lemma 3.16. There are natural inclusions
∦
Pτ♭ ֒→ Pτ ֒→ Pτ
which induce isomorphisms on saturations. The unparalleled monoid admits a generating set of size
at most
 
|V (Γ)|
(11) .
2

∦
Proof. The natural morphism Pτ♭ ֒→ Pτ is of finite index and identifies groupifications.
Hence it also identifies saturations, and by definition (Pτ♭ )sat = Pτ .
The monogenic presentation has Gτ = E(Γ). The unparalleled presentation then reduces
this generating set down to a single parameter for each pair of adjacent vertices, from which
we conclude (11). Note that since τ is representable and expansive, there are no loops. 

3.4. The 7-gon is inaccessible. We are finally in a position to prove the main result of this
section.
Theorem 3.17 (Theorem D). Fix k > 7 and consider an arbitrary convex k-gon
S ⊆ Z2 ⊗ R
whose vertices are lattice points. Let σ∨ ⊆ Z3 ⊗ R be the cone over S × {1} and let
P := σ∨ ∩ Z3
be the associated monoid of lattice points. Then there does not exist any representable tropical type τ
of map to R+ with Pτ = P .
 UNIVERSALITY FOR TROPICAL AND LOGARITHMIC MAPS 21

Proof. Suppose for a contradiction that such a tropical type τ exists. Since P contains no
N factors we may assume by Proposition 3.8 that τ is monogenic and expansive. By The-
orem 3.11 we have |V (Γ)| = 4. From this and Lemma 3.16 we see that the unparalleled
monoid is generated by at most 6 elements. On the other hand we have
∦
Pτ ֒→ P
∦
which identifies saturations. Consequently, Pτ must contain the primitive generators of the
rays over the vertices of the k-gon S. Since these are extremal rays, it follows that
∦
Pτ
requires at least k > 7 generating elements, contradicting Lemma 3.16. 
Corollary 3.18. With P as above, the toric singularity Spec k[P ] does not appear in any moduli
space Log(A) of prestable logarithmic maps to the universal smooth pair.

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Gabriel Corrigan, University of Glasgow, [email protected]

Navid Nabijou, Queen Mary University of London, [email protected]
Dan Simms, London School of Geometry and Number Theory, [email protected]