We discuss selected topics on the topology of moduli spaces of curves and maps, emphasizing their relation with Gromov--Witten theory and integrable systems.
We develop a moduli theory of algebraic varieties and pairs of non-negative Kodaira dimension. We define stable minimal models and construct their projective coarse moduli spaces under certain natural conditions. This can be applied to a wide range of moduli problems in algebraic geometry.
In this paper, we study the geometric invariant theory on algebraic spaces, and construct te moduli spaces of $\mathcal{H}$-semistable sheaves on projective Deligne-Mumford stacks over algebraic spaces $S$. We prove that this moduli space is projective over $S$ as an algebraic space.
In this expository note, we offer an overview of the relationship between Hodge-theoretic and geometric compactifications of moduli spaces of algebraic varieties.
We compute the first, second, third, and fifth rational cohomology groups of the moduli space of stable n-pointed genus g curves, for all g and n, using (mostly) algebro-geometric techniques.
This is mostly* a non-technical exposition of the joint work arXiv:1212.0373 with Caporaso and Payne. Topics include: Moduli of Riemann surfaces / algebraic curves; Deligne-Mumford compactification; Dual graphs and the combinatorics of the compactification; Tropical curves and their moduli; Non-archimedean geometry and comparison. * Maybe the last section is technical.
We give a short appreciation of Mumford's work on the moduli of varieties by putting it into historical context. By reviewing earlier works we highlight the innovations introduced by Mumford. Then we discuss recent developments whose origins can be traced back to Mumford's ideas.
In this paper we construct a tropical moduli space parametrizing roots of divisors on tropical curves. We study the relation between this space and the skeleton of Jarvis moduli space of nets of limit roots on stable curves. We show that the combinatorics of the moduli space of tropical roots is governed by the poset of flows, a poset parametrizing certain flows on graphs.
In recent years a series of remarkable advances in tropical geometry and in non-archimedean geometry have brought new insights to the moduli theory of algebraic curves and their Jacobians. The goal of this survey, an expanded version of my talks at the 2015 AMS symposium in algebraic geometry and at AGNES 2016, is to present some of the results in this area.
We construct the moduli space for equivalence classes of n-pointed tropical curves of genus g, together with its compactification given by weighted tropical curves, and establish some of its basic topological properties. We compare it to the moduli spaces of smooth and stable algebraic curves, from the combinatorial, the topological, and the Teichmüller point of view. The paper is written in an expository style, and it generalizes some results contained in sections 4-6 of arXiv:1001.2815v3.
Here we investigate some birational properties of two collections of moduli spaces, namely moduli spaces of (pointed) stable curves and of (pointed) spin curves. In particular, we focus on vanishings of Hodge numbers of type (p,0) and on computations of the Kodaira dimension. Our methods are purely algebraic geometric and rely on an induction argument on the number of marked points and the genus of the curves (cf. mathAG/9803001).
We study the geometry of the moduli stack of vector bundles of fixed rank and degree over an algebraic curve by introducing a filtration made of open substacks build from $(k, l)$-stable vector bundles. $(k, l)$-stability was introduced by Narasimhan and Ramanan to study the geometry of the coarse moduli space of stable bundles. We will exhibit the stacky picture and analyse the geometric and cohomological properties of the moduli stacks of $(k, l)$-stable vector bundles. For particular pairs $(k, l) $ of integers we also show that these moduli stacks admit coarse moduli spaces and we discuss …
It is proved that the number of deformation types of complex structures on a fixed oriented smooth four-manifold can be arbitrarily large. The considered examples are locally simple abelian covers of rational surfaces.
This article is based in part on lecture notes prepared for the summer school "The Geometry, Topology and Physics of Moduli Spaces of Higgs Bundles" at the Institute for Mathematical Sciences at the National University of Singapore in July of 2014. The aim is to provide a brief introduction to algebraic stacks, and then to give several constructions of the moduli stack of Higgs bundles on algebraic curves. The first construction is via a "bootstrap" method from the algebraic stack of vector bundles on an algebraic curve. This construction is motivated in part by Nitsure's GIT construction of a…
In 1914, F. Hausdorff defined a metric on the set of closed subsets of a metric space $X$. This metric induces a topology on the set $H$ of compact subsets of $X$, called the Hausdorff topology. We show that the topological space $H$ represents the functor on the category of sequential topological spaces taking $T$ to the set of closed subspaces $Z$ of $T \times X$ for which the projection $π_1 : Z \to T$ is open and proper. In particular, the Hausdorff topology on $H$ depends on the metric space $X$ only through the underlying topological space of $X$. The Hausdorff space $H$ provides an anal…
We study the spaces of stable real and quaternionic vector bundles on a real algebraic curve. The basic relationship is established with unitary representations of an extension Z/2 by the fundamental group. By comparison with the space of real or quaternionic connections, some of the basic topological invariants of these spaces are calculated.
Let $X$ be a smooth complex elliptic curve and $G$ a connected reductive affine algebraic group defined over $\mathbb C$. Let ${\mathcal M}_X(G)$ denote the moduli space of topologically trivial algebraic $G$--connections on $X$, that is, pairs of the form $(E_G\, , D)$, where $E_G$ is a topologically trivial algebraic principal $G$--bundle on $X$, and $D$ is an algebraic connection on $E_G$. We prove that ${\mathcal M}_X(G)$ does not admit any nonconstant algebraic function while being biholomorphic to an affine variety.
The moduli stacks of Calabi-Yau varieties are known to enjoy several hyperbolicity properties. The best results have so far been proven using sophisticated analytic tools such as complex Hodge theory. Although the situation is very different in positive characteristic (e.g. the moduli stack of principally polarized abelian varieties of dimension at least 2 contains rational curves), we explain in this note how one can prove many hyperbolicity results by reduction to positive characteristic, relying ultimately on the nonabelian Hodge theory in positive characteristic developed by Ogus and Volog…
We show the equivalence between two notions of log moduli stacks which appear in literatures. In particular, we generalize M.Olsson's theorem of representation of log algebraic stacks and answer a question posted by him (\cite{Ol4} 3.5.3). As an application, we obtain several fundamental results of algebraic log stacks which resemble to those in algebraic stacks.
Let $C$ be an algebraic curve of genus $g\ge2$. A coherent system on $C$ consists of a pair $(E,V)$, where $E$ is an algebraic vector bundle over $C$ of rank $n$ and degree $d$ and $V$ is a subspace of dimension $k$ of the space of sections of $E$. The stability of the coherent system depends on a parameter $α$. We study the geometry of the moduli space of coherent systems for $0<d\le2n$. We show that these spaces are irreducible whenever they are non-empty and obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for non-emptiness.
In this paper we construct the analogue of Dedekind eta-function on the moduli space of polarized CY manifolds. We prove that the L-two norm of eta is the regularized determinants of the Laplacians of the CY metric on (0,1) forms. We construct the analogue of the Baily-Borel Compactification of the moduli space of polarized CY and prove that it has the same properties as the Baily-Borel compactification of the locally symmetric Hermitian spaces. We proved that the compactification constructed in the paper is the minimal.
The Betti numbers of moduli spaces of representations of a universal central extension of a surface group in the groups U(2,1) and SU(2,1) are calculated. The results are obtained using the identification of these moduli spaces with moduli spaces of Higgs bundles, and Morse theory, following Hitchin's programme. This requires a careful analysis of critical submanifolds which turn out to have a description using either symmetric products of the surface or moduli spaces of Bradlow pairs.
This paper surveys some applications of moduli theory to issues concerning the distribution of rational points on algebraic varieties. It will appear on the proceedings of the Fano Conference.
For fixed $k<g$ and a family of polarized abelian varieties of dimension $g$ over $\mathbb{R}$, we give a criterion for the density in the parameter space of those abelian varieties over $\mathbb{R}$ containing a $k$-dimensional abelian subvariety over $\mathbb{R}$. As application, we prove density of such a set in the moduli space of polarized real abelian varieties of dimension $g$, and density of real algebraic curves mapping non-trivially to real $k$-dimensional abelian varieties in the moduli space of real algebraic curves as well as in the space of real plane curves. This extends to the …
In this paper we study topology of moduli spaces of tropical curves of genus $g$ with $n$ marked points. We view the moduli spaces as being imbedded in a larger space, which we call the {\it moduli space of metric graphs with $n$ marked points.} We describe the shrinking bridges strong deformation retraction, which leads to a substantial simplification of all these moduli spaces. In the rest of the paper, that reduction is used to analyze the case of genus 1. The corresponding moduli space is presented as a quotient space of a torus with respect to the conjugation ${\mathbb Z}_2$-action; and f…
This is an expository article on the theory of algebraic stacks. After introducing the general theory, we concentrate in the example of the moduli stack of vector budles, giving a detailed comparison with the moduli scheme obtained via geometric invariant theory.
In this paper we show that the moduli space of framed torsion-free sheaves on a certain class of toric surfaces admits a filtrable Bialynicki-Birula decomposition determined by the torus action. The irreducibility of this moduli space follows immediately as a corollary. Moreover, using its filtrable decomposition we show that the moduli space shares the same homotopy type of an invariant proper compact subvariety having the same fixed points set. We start our study from the moduli space of framed torsion-free sheaves on the projective plane. Afterwards, we generalize the results to toric surfa…
We analyze Weierstrass cycles and tautological rings in moduli space of smooth algebraic curves and in moduli spaces of integral algebraic curves with embedded disks with special attention to moduli spaces of curves having genus $\leq 6$. In particular, we show that our general formula gives a good estimate for the dimension of Weierstrass cycles for lower genera.
We discuss the principle tools and results and state a few open problems concerning the classification and topology of plane sextics and trigonal curves in ruled surfaces.
Let X be a nonsingular complex projective variety that is acted on by a reductive group $G$ and such that $X^{ss} \neq X_{(0)}^{s}\neq \emptyset$. We give formulae for the Hodge--Poincaré series of the quotient $X_{(0)}^s/G$. We use these computations to obtain the corresponding formulae for the Hodge--Poincaré polynomial of the moduli space of properly stable vector bundles when the rank and the degree are not coprime. We compute explicitly the case in which the rank equals 2 and the degree is even.
We generalize the construction of M. Lieblich for the compactification of the moduli stack of $\PGL_r$-bundles on algebraic spaces to the moduli stack of Tanaka-Thomas $\PGL_r$-Higgs bundles on algebraic schemes. The method we use is the moduli stack of Higgs version of Azumaya algebras. In the case of smooth surfaces, we obtain a virtual fundamental class on the moduli stack of $\PGL_r$-Higgs bundles. An application to the Vafa-Witten invariants is discussed.
We study the tropicalization of the moduli space of algebraic spin curves, exhibit its combinatorial stratification and prove that the strata are irreducible. We construct the moduli space of tropical spin curves, prove that it is isomorphic to the skeleton of the Berkovich analytification of the moduli space of algebraic spin curves, and give a geometric interpretation of the retraction map in terms of a tropicalization map.
We consider a semi-algebraic function defined on a closed semi-algebraic set X. We give formulas relating the topology of X to the indices of the critical points of the function and to the topological behavior of the function at infinity. We give applications when X is R^n and when the function is linear.
Let $M(n,ξ)$ be the moduli space of stable vector bundles of rank $n\geq 3$ and fixed determinant $ξ$ over a smooth projective algebraic curve $X$ over $\mathbb{C}$ of genus $g\geq 4.$ We use the gonality of the curve and $r$-Hecke morphisms to describe a smooth open set and to compute the dimension of a component of the Hilbert scheme $Hilb_{M(n,ξ)}$, of the scheme of morphisms $Mor(\mathbb{G},M(n,ξ))$ and of the moduli space $ M_{X \times \mathbb{G}}$ of stable bundles over $X\times \mathbb{G},$ where $\mathbb{G}$ is the Grassmannian $\mathbb{G}(n-r,\mathbb{C}^n)$. In particular, we prove th…
Let $X$ be a compact connected Riemann surface of genus at least two and $G$ a connected reductive complex affine algebraic group. The Riemann--Hilbert correspondence produces a biholomorphism between the moduli space ${\mathcal M}_X(G)$ parametrizing holomorphic $G$--connections on $X$ and the $G$--character variety $${\mathcal R}(G):= \text{Hom}(π_1(X, x_0), G)/\!\!/G\, .$$ While ${\mathcal R}(G)$ is known to be affine, we show that ${\mathcal M}_X(G)$ is not affine. The scheme ${\mathcal R}(G)$ has an algebraic symplectic form constructed by Goldman. We construct an algebraic symplectic for…
In this paper, we consider the tautological ring containing the extended Brill-Noether algebraic classes on the normalization of the compactified Jacobian of a complex nodal projective curve (with one node). This smallest $\Q$-subalgebra of algebraic classes under algebraic equivalence, stable under extensions of the maps induced by multiplication maps, Pontrayagin product and Fourier transform, is shown to be generated by pullback of the Brill-Noether classes of the Jacobian of the normalized curve and some natural classes.
We prove that the forgetful morphism from the moduli space of orthogonal bundles to the moduli space of vector bundles over a smooth curve is an embedding. Our proof relies on an explicit description of a set of generators for the invariants on the representation space of a quiver under the action of a product of classical groups.
Algebraically constructible functions connect real algebra with the topology of algebraic sets. In this survey we present some history, definitions, properties, and algebraic characterizations of algebraically constructible functions, and a description of local obstructions for a topological space to be homeomorphic to a real algebraic set.
These lecture notes consist of an introduction to moduli spaces in algebraic geometry, with a strong emphasis placed on examples related to the theory of quiver representations. The goal is to provide the background necessary to understand the construction of the moduli spaces of stable and semistable quiver representations due to King, Nakajima's quiver varieties, as well as some 'quiver versions' of existing moduli spaces of algebra-geometric objects.
We introduce a method of constructing the virtual cycle of any scheme associated with a tangent-obstruction complex. We apply this method to constructing the virtual moduli cycle of the moduli of stable maps from n-pointed genus g curves to any smooth projective variety. As an application, we give an algebraic definition of GW-invariants for any smooth projective variety.
We develop homotopical algebraic geometry (see math.AG/0207028) in the special context where the base symmetric monoidal model category is the category S of spectra, i.e. what might be called, after Waldhausen, ``brave new algebraic geometry''. We discuss various model topologies on the model category of commutative algebras in S, the associated theories of geometric S-stacks (a geometric S-stack being an analog of Artin notion of algebraic stack in Algebraic Geometry), and finally show how to define global moduli spaces of associative ring spectra structures and a moduli space related to topo…
We study the topology of the link $M^{\mathrm{trop}}_{g,n}[1]$ of the tropical moduli spaces of curves when g=2. Tropical moduli spaces can be identified with boundary complexes for $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$, as shown by Abramovich-Caporaso-Payne, so their reduced rational homology encodes top-weight rational cohomology of the complex moduli spaces $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$. We prove that $M^{\mathrm{trop}}_{2,n}[1]$ is an $n$-connected topological space whose reduced integral homology is supported in the top two degrees only. We compute the reduced Euler characteristic of $M^{\mathrm{trop}}_{g,n}[1]$ for…