Tropical Teichmuller and Siegel spaces

Abstract

In this paper, we present a unified study of the moduli space of tropical curves and Outer space which we link via period maps to the moduli space of tropical abelian varieties and the space of positive definite quadratic forms. Our work is a first step towards exhibiting Outer space and the space of positive definite quadratic forms as analogues of Teichm\"uller space and Siegel space, respectively, in tropical geometry. All these spaces and the maps among them are described within the category of ideal stacky fans, which we describe in detail.