On Rational Equivalence in Tropical Geometry

This article discusses the concept of rational equivalence in tropical geometry (and replaces the older and imperfect version [AR08]). We give the basic definitions in the context of tropical varieties without boundary points and prove some basic properties. We then compute the “bounded” Chow groups of R by showing that they are isomorphic to the group of fan cycles. The main step in the proof is of independent interest: We show that every tropical cycle in R is a sum of (translated) fan cycles. This also proves that the intersection ring of tropical cycles is generated in codimension 1 (by hypersurfaces).