Principal bundles on metric graphs: The GL_n case

Using the notion of a root datum of a reductive group G we propose a tropical analogue of a principal G-bundle on a metric graph. We focus on the case G=GL_n, i.e. the case of vector bundles. Here we give a characterization of vector bundles in terms of multidivisors and use this description to prove analogues of the Weil–Riemann–Roch theorem and the Narasimhan–Seshadri correspondence. We proceed by studying the process of tropicalization. In particular, we show that the non-Archimedean skeleton of the moduli space of semistable vector bundles on a Tate curve is isomorphic to a certain component of the moduli space of semistable tropical vector bundles on its dual metric graph.