Eisenbud and Harris introduced the theory of limit linear series, and constructed a space parametrizing their limit linear series. Recently, Osserman introduced a new space which compactifies the Eisenbud-Harris construction. In the Eisenbud-Harris space, the set of refined limit linear series is always dense on a general reducible curve. Osserman asks when the same is true for his space. In this paper, we answer his question by characterizing the situations when the crude limit linear series contain an open subset of his space.
In math.AG/0407496, a new construction of limit linear series is presented which functorializes and compactifies the original construction of Eisenbud and Harris, using a new space called the linked Grassmannian. The boundary of the compactification consists of crude limit series, and maps with positive-dimensional fibers to crude limit series of Eisenbud and Harris. In this paper, we carry out a careful analysis of the linked Grassmannian to obtain an upper bound on the dimension of the fibers of the map on crude limit series, thereby concluding an upper bound on the dimension of the locus of…
A bracket is a function that assigns a number to each monomial in variables τ_0, τ_1, ... We show that any bracket satisfying the string and the dilaton relations gives rise to a power series lying in the algebra A generated by the series \sum n^{n-1} q^n/n! and \sum n^n q^n /n! . As a consequence, various series from A appear in the intersection theory of moduli spaces of curves. A connection between the counting of ramified coverings of the sphere and the intersection theory on moduli spaces allows us to prove that some natural generating functions enumerating the ramified coverings lie, yet…
We introduce a formalism of descent of moduli spaces, and use it to produce limit linear series moduli spaces for families of curves in which the components of fibers may have monodromy. We then construct a universal stack of limit linear series over the stack of semistable curves of compact type, and produce new results on existence of real curves with few real linear series.
We show that the failure of the usual Verdier duality on Bun(G) leads to a new duality functor on the category of D-modules, and we study its relation to the operation of Eisenstein series.
We define tautological Chow classes on the moduli space of curves with linear series. In the case where the forgetful morphism to the moduli space of curves has relative dimension zero, we describe the images of these classes in the Chow group of Mgbar. As an application, we compute the (virtual) slopes of several different classes of divisors on Mgbar.
In the infinite series of complete families of Calabi-Yau manifolds $\tilde{f}_n: \tilde{\mathcal{X}}_n\rightarrow \mathfrak{M}_{n, n+3}$, where $n$ is an odd number, arising from cyclic covers of $\mathbb{P}^n$ branching along hyperplane arrangements (\cite{SXZ13}), the set of CM points is dense for $n=1, 3$ and finite for $n\geq 5$.
In order to prove new existence results in Brill-Noether theory for rank-2 vector bundles with fixed special determinant, we develop foundational definitions and results for limit linear series of higher-rank vector bundles. These include two entirely new constructions of "linked linear series" generalizing earlier work of the author for the classical rank-1 case, as well as a new canonical stack structure for the previously developed theory due to Eisenbud, Harris and Teixidor i Bigas. This last structure is new even in the classical rank-1 case, and yields the first proper moduli space of Ei…
This article is based on lecture notes prepared for the August 2006 Cologne Summer School. The first part contains background material and references for beginners. The second (and main) part is a survey of the current status in the theory of pluri-theta linear series and generalized theta divisors on moduli spaces of vector bundles on curves. It emphasizes relatively new techniques employed in the analysis of linear series on these moduli spaces, namely the use of moduli spaces of stable maps for understanding Quot schemes, and the Fourier-Mukai functor in the study of coherent sheaves on abe…
For $n\geq 3$, let $\mathcal{M}_{0,n}$ denote the moduli space of genus 0 curves with $n$ marked points, and $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$ its smooth compactification. A theorem due to Ginzburg, Kapranov and Getzler states that the inverse of the exponential generating series for the Poincaré polynomial of $H^{\bullet}(\mathcal{M}_{0,n})$ is given by the corresponding series for $H^{\bullet}(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{0,n})$. In this paper, we prove that the inverse of the ordinary generating series for the Poincaré polynomial of $H^{\bullet}(\mathcal{M}_{0,n})$ is given by the corresponding ser…
We describe the moduli space G^r_d of triples consisting of a curve C, a line bundle L on C of degree d, and a linear system V on L of dimension r. This moduli space extends over a partial compactification {\tilde M_g} of M_g inside {\bar M_g}. For the proper map h : G^r_d --> \tilde M_g, we compute the push-forward on Chow 1-cocyles in the case where h has relative dimension zero. As a consequence we obtain another counterexample to the Harris-Morrison slope conjecture as well as an infinite sequence of potential counterexamples.
We construct a new infinite series of irreducible components of the Gieseker-Maruyama moduli scheme $\mathcal{M}(k), ~ k \geq 3$ of coherent semistable rank 2 sheaves with Chern classes $c_1=0,~ c_2=k,~ c_3=0$ on $\mathbb{P}^3$ whose general points are sheaves with singularities of mixed dimension. These sheaves are constructed by elementary transformations of stable and properly $μ$-semistable reflexive sheaves along disjoint union of collections of points and smooth irreducible curves which are rational or complete intersection curves. As a special member of this series we obtain a new compo…
Using Szenes formula for multiple Bernoulli series we explain how to compute Witten series associated to classical Lie algebras. Particular instances of these series compute volumes of moduli spaces of flat bundles over surfaces, and also certain multiple zeta values.
We develop a new, more functorial construction for the basic theory of limit linear series, which provides a compactification of the Eisenbud-Harris theory, and shows promise for generalization to higher-dimensional varieties and higher-rank vector bundles. We also give a result on lifting linear series from characteristic p to characteristic 0. In an appendix, in order to obtain the necessary dimensional lower bounds on our limit linear series scheme we develop a theory of "linked Grassmannians;" these are schemes parametrizing sub-bundles of a sequence of vector bundles which map into one an…
We describe new components of the Gieseker--Maruyama moduli scheme $\mathcal{M}(n)$ of semistable rank 2 sheaves $E$ on $\mathbb{P}^3$ with $c_1(E)=0$, $c_2(E)=n$ and $c_3(E)=0$ whose generic point corresponds to non locally free sheaves. We show that such components grow in number as $n$ grows, and discuss how they intersect the instanton component. As an application, we prove that $\mathcal{M}(2)$ is connected, and identify a connected subscheme of $\mathcal{M}(3)$ consisting of 7 irreducible components.
In this paper we provide an explicit construction of a $distinctive$ multiple Dirichlet series associated to products of quadratic Dirichlet L-series, which we believe should be tightly connected to a generalized metaplectic Whittaker function on the double cover of a Kac-Moody group. To do so, we first impose a set of axioms, independent of any group of functional equations, which the aforementioned object should satisfy. As a consequence, we deduce that the coefficients of the $p$-parts of the multiple Dirichlet series satisfy certain recurrence relations. These relations lead to a family of…
We study the problem of rationality of an infinite series of components, the so-called Ein components, of the Gieseker-Maruyama moduli space $M(e,n)$ of rank 2 stable vector bundles with the first Chern class $e=0$ or -1 and all possible values of the second Chern class $n$ on the projective 3-space. The generalized null correlation bundles constituting open dense subsets of these components are defined as cohomology bundles of monads whose members are direct sums of line bundles of degrees depending on nonnegative integers $a,b,c$, where $b\ge a$ and $c>a+b$. We show that, in the wide range w…
In this paper we approach the study of generalized theta linear series on moduli of vector bundles on curves via vector bundle techniques on abelian varieties. We study what are called the Verlinde bundles in order to obtain information about duality between theta functions and effective global and normal generation on these moduli spaces.
The moduli space $\mathcal M(r,n)$ of framed torsion free sheaves on the projective plane with rank $r$ and second Chern class equal to $n$ has the natural action of the $(r+2)$-dimensional torus. In this paper, we look at the fixed point set of different one-dimensional subtori in this torus. We prove that in the homogeneous case the generating series of the numbers of the irreducible components has a beautiful decomposition into an infinite product. In the case of odd $r$ these infinite products coincide with certain Virasoro characters. We also propose a conjecture in a general quasihomogen…
We use Donaldson invariants of regular surfaces with p_g >0 to make quantitative statements about modulispaces of stable rank 2 sheaves. We give two examples: a quantitative existence theorem for stable bundles, and a computation of the rank of the canonical holomorphic two forms on the moduli space. The results are in some sense dual to the Donaldson and O'Grady non vanishing theorems because they use the Donaldson series of the surface as _input_. Results in purely algebraic geometric terms can be obtained by using the explicit form of the Donaldson series of the surface. The Donaldson serie…
We describe a new perspective on the intersection theory of the moduli space of curves involving both Virasoro constraints and Gorenstein conditions. The main result of the paper is the computation of a basic 1-point Hodge integral series occurring in the tautological ring of the moduli space of nonsingular curves. In the appendix by D. Zagier, "Polynomials arising from the tautological ring", a detailed study is made of certain polynomials whose coefficients are intersection numbers on moduli space. The paper and the appendix together provide proofs of all previously conjectured formulas for …
These are notes for a series of five lectures on "Moduli and degenerations of algebraic curves via tropical geometry" delivered at the CIMPA-CIMAT-ICTP School on Moduli of Curves, February 29-March 4, 2016 in Guanajuato, Mexico.
Let L >= 3. Using the moduli interpretation, we define certain elliptic modular forms of level Gamma(L) over any field k where 6L is invertible and k contains the Lth roots of unity. These forms generate a graded algebra R_L, which, over C, is generated by the Eisenstein series of weight 1 on Gamma(L). The main result of this article is that, when k=C, the ring R_L contains all modular forms on Gamma(L) in weights >= 2. The proof combines algebraic and analytic techniques, including the action of Hecke operators and nonvanishing of L-functions. Our results give a systematic method to produce m…
These notes cover our series of three lectures at Humboldt University in Berlin for the October 2010 conference "Intersection theory on moduli space" (organized by G. Farkas). The topic concerns relations among the kappa classes in the tautological ring of the moduli space of genus g curves. After a discussion of classical constructions in Wick form, we derive an explicit set of relations obtained from the virtual geometry of the moduli space of stable quotients. In a series of steps, the stable quotient relations are transformed to simpler and simpler forms. Our final result establishes a pre…
The virtual geometry of the moduli space of stable quotients is used to obtain Chow relations among the kappa classes on the moduli space of nonsingular genus g curves. In a series of steps, the stable quotient relations are rewritten in successively simpler forms. The final result is the proof of the Faber-Zagier relations (conjectured in 2000).
This is the first in a series of articles on the moduli spaces of Burniat surfaces. We prove that Burniat surfaces are Inoue surfaces and we calculate their fundamental groups. As a main result of this paper we prove that every smooth projective surface which is homotopically equivalent to a primary Burniat surface (i.e., a Burniat surface with K^2 = 6) is indeed a primary Burniat surface.
We discuss the geometry of the moduli space of Prym varieties. The article is based on series of lectures given in Bedlewo and Luminy. The first section of the paper contains a detailed historical account of the lives of Friedrich Prym and Friedrich Schottky.
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.
The moduli space $\mathcal{G}^r_{g,d} \to \mathcal{M}_g$ parameterizing algebraic curves with a linear series of degree $d$ and rank $r$ has expected relative dimension $ρ= g - (r+1)(g-d+r)$. Classical Brill-Noether theory concerns the case $ρ\geq 0$; we consider the non-surjective case $ρ< 0$. We prove the existence of components of this moduli space with the expected relative dimension when $0 > ρ\geq -g+3$, or $0 > ρ\geq -C_r g + \mathcal{O}(g^{5/6})$, where $C_r$ is a constant depending on the rank of the linear series such that $C_r \to 3$ as $r \to \infty$. These results are proved via a…
We describe the application of the results of Kudla-Millson on the modularity of generating series for cohomology classes of special cycles to the case of lattice polarized K3 surfaces. In this case, the special cycles can be interpreted as higher Noether-Lefschetz loci. These generating series can be paired with the cohomology classes of complete subvarieties of the moduli space to give classical Siegel modular forms with higher Noether-Lefschetz numbers as Fourier coefficients. Examples of such complete families associated to quadratic spaces over totally real number fields are constructed. …
Using our earlier results on polynomiality properties of plethystic logarithms of generating series of certain type we show that Schiffmann's formulas for various counts of Higgs bundles over finite fields can be reduced to much simpler formulas conjectured by Mozgovoy. In particular, our result implies the conjecture of Hausel and Rodriguez-Villegas on the Poincaré polynomials of twisted character varieties and the conjecture of Hausel and Thaddeus on independence of $E$-polynomials on the degree.
In this paper, we construct toric data of moduli space of quasi maps of degree $d$ from P^{1} with two marked points to weighted projective space P(1.1,1,3). With this result, we prove that the moduli space is a compact toric orbifold. We also determine its Chow ring. Moreover, we give a proof of the conjecture proposed by Jinzenji that a series of intersection numbers of the moduli spaces coincides with expansion coefficients of inverse function of -log(j(tau)).
This paper has been withdrawn, because I have merged it with paper I of the series, math.AG/0312190. The main results of this paper now appear in sections 7-9 of the revised version of math.AG/0312190, with shortened and improved proofs.
Given a scheme $Y$ equipped with a collection of globally generated vector bundles $E_1, \dots, E_n$, we study the universal morphism from $Y$ to a fine moduli space $\mathcal{M}(E)$ of cyclic modules over the endomorphism algebra of $E:=\mathcal{O}_Y\oplus E_1\oplus\cdots \oplus E_n$. This generalises the classical morphism to the linear series of a basepoint-free line bundle on a scheme. We describe the image of the morphism and present necessary and sufficient conditions for surjectivity in terms of a recollement of a module category. When the morphism is surjective, this gives a fine modul…
We find explicit projective models of a compact Shimura curve and of a (non-compact) surface which are the moduli spaces of principally polarised abelian fourfolds with an automorphism of order five. The surface has a 24-nodal canonical model in IP^4 which is the complete intersection of two S_5-invariant cubics. It is dominated by a Hilbert modular surface and we give a modular interpretation for this. We also determine the L-series of these varieties as well as those of several modular covers of the Shimura curve.
We perform an intersection theoretic study of the rational map between two different moduli spaces of stable curves which associates to a curve its corresponding Brill-Noether locus (in the case this locus has virtual dimension 1). We then use these results to describe the cone of moving divisors on M_g. Several other applications to moduli spaces of Prym varieties are presented. In a different direction, we prove that the locus in M_g of curves failing to satisfy the Gieseker-Petri theorem is supported in codimension 1 for every possible type of linear series.
We show that every coarse moduli space, parametrizing complex special linear rank two local systems with fixed boundary traces on a surface with nonempty boundary, is log Calabi-Yau in that it has a normal projective compactification with trivial log canonical divisor. We connect this to a novel symmetry of generating series for counts of essential multicurves on the surface.
We present a new family of monads whose cohomology is a stable rank two vector bundle on $\mathbb{P}^3$. We also study the irreducibility and smoothness together with a geometrical description of some of these families. These facts are used to construct a new infinite series of rational moduli components of stable rank two vector bundles with trivial determinant and growing second Chern class. We also prove that the moduli space of stable rank two vector bundles with trivial determinant and second Chern class equal to 5 has exactly three irreducible rational components.
We establish a method for calculating the Poincaré series of moduli spaces constructed as quotients of smooth varieties by suitable non-reductive group actions; examples of such moduli spaces include moduli spaces of unstable vector or Higgs bundles on a smooth projective curve, with a Harder-Narasimhan type of length two. To do so, we first prove a result concerning the smoothness of fixed point sets for suitable non-reductive group actions on smooth varieties. This enables us to prove that quotients of smooth varieties by such non-reductive group actions, which can be constructed using Non-R…
We study the change of moduli spaces of Gieseker-semistable torsion free rank-$2$ sheaves on algebraic surfaces as we vary the polarizations. When the surfaces are rational with an effective anti-canonical divisor, the moduli spaces are linked by a series of flips (blowups and blowdowns). Using these results, we compute the transition formulas for Donaldson polynomial invariants of rational surfaces. Part of the work is also obtained independently by Matsuki-Wentworth and Ellingsrud-G{\" o}ttsche.
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 study how the degrees of irrationality of moduli spaces of polarized K3 surfaces grow with respect to the genus $g$. We prove that the growth is bounded by a polynomial function of degree $14+\varepsilon$ for any $\varepsilon>0$ and, for three sets of infinitely many genera, the bounds can be refined to polynomials of degree $10$. The main ingredients in our proof are the modularity of the generating series of Heegner divisors due to Borcherds and its generalization to higher codimensions due to Kudla, Millson, Zhang, Bruinier, and Westerholt-Raum. For special genera, the proof is also buil…
This paper lays the foundation for determining the Kodaira dimension of the projectivized strata of Abelian differentials with prescribed zero and pole orders in large genus. We work with the moduli space of multi-scale differentials constructed in [BCGGM2] which provides an orbifold compactification of these strata. We establish the projectivity of the moduli space of multi-scale differentials, describe the locus of canonical singularities, and compute a series of effective divisor classes. Moreover, we exhibit a perturbation of the canonical class which allows the corresponding pluri-canonic…
We present a series of new results we obtained recently about the intersection numbers of tautological classes on moduli spaces of curves, including a simple formula of the n-point functions for Witten's $τ$ classes, an effective recursion formula to compute higher Weil-Petersson volumes, several new recursion formulae of intersection numbers and our proof of a conjecture of Itzykson and Zuber concerning denominators of intersection numbers. We also present Virasoro and KdV properties of generating functions of general mixed $κ$ and $ψ$ intersections.
This paper is built on the following observation: the purity of the mixed Hodge structure on the cohomology of Brown's moduli spaces is essentially equivalent to the freeness of the dihedral operad underlying the gravity operad. We prove these two facts by relying on both the geometric and the algebraic aspects of the problem: the complete geometric description of the cohomology of Brown's moduli spaces and the coradical filtration of cofree cooperads. This gives a conceptual proof of an identity of Bergström-Brown which expresses the Betti numbers of Brown's moduli spaces via the inversion of…
We introduce the notion of level-$δ$ limit linear series, which describe limits of linear series along families of smooth curves degenerating to a singular curve $X$. We treat here only the simplest case where $X$ is the union of two smooth components meeting transversely at a point $P$. The integer $δ$ stands for the singularity degree of the total space of the degeneration at $P$. If the total space is regular, we get level-1 limit linear series, which are precisely those introduced by Osserman in 2006. We construct a projective moduli space $G^r_{d,δ}(X)$ parameterizing level-$δ$ limit line…
We survey the basic theory of non-commutative K3 surfaces, with a particular emphasis to the ones arising from cubic fourfolds. We focus on the problem of constructing Bridgeland stability conditions on these categories and we then investigate the geometry of the corresponding moduli spaces of stable objects. We discuss a number of consequences related to cubic fourfolds including new proofs of the Torelli theorem and of the integral Hodge conjecture, the extension of a result of Addington and Thomas and various applications to hyperkähler manifolds. These notes originated from the lecture ser…
This is the third paper in a series of work on weighted stable elliptic surfaces - elliptic fibrations with section and marked fibers weighted between zero and one. Motivated by Hassett's weighted pointed stable curves, we use the log minimal model program to construct compact moduli spaces parameterizing these objects. Moreoever, we show that the domain of weights admits a wall and chamber structure, we describe the induced wall crossing morphisms on the moduli spaces as the weight vector varies, and describe the surfaces that appear on the boundary of the moduli space. The main technical res…
In the present paper we investigate conditions for the non-existence of a limit linear series on a curve of compact type such that two smooth curves are bridged by a chain of two elliptic curves. Combining this work with results on the existence of a smoothable limit linear series on such a curve, we show relations among Brill-Noether loci of codimension at most two in the moduli space of complex curves. Specifically, Brill-Noether loci of codimension two have mutually distinct supports.
Let $X$ be any smooth simply connected projective surface. We consider some moduli space of pure sheaves of dimension one on $X$, i.e. $\mhu$ with $u=(0,L,χ(u)=0)$ and $L$ an effective line bundle on $X$, together with a series of determinant line bundles associated to $r[\mo_X]-n[\mo_{pt}]$ in Grothendieck group of $X$. Let $g_L$ denote the arithmetic genus of curves in the linear system $\ls$. For $g_L\leq2$, we give a upper bound of the dimensions of sections of these line bundles by restricting them to a generic projective line in $\ls$. Our result gives, together with Göttsche's computati…
