Balancing properties of tropical moduli maps

Abstract Given a family of parameterized algebraic curves over a strictly semistable pair, we show that the simultaneous tropicalization of the curves in the family forms a family of parameterized tropical curves over the skeleton of the strictly semistable pair. We show that the induced tropical moduli map satisfies a certain balancing condition, which allows us to describe properties of its image and deduce a new liftability criterion.