In the Hurwitz space of rational functions on CP^1 with poles of given orders, we study the loci of multisingularities, that is, the loci of functions with a given ramification profile over 0. We prove a recursion relation on the Poincare dual cohomology classes of these loci and deduce a differential equation on Hurwitz numbers.
The Maroni stratification on the Hurwitz space of degree $d$ covers of genus $g$ has a stratum that is a divisor only if $d-1$ divides $g$. Here we construct a stratification on the Hurwitz space that is analogous to the Maroni stratification, but has a divisor for all pairs $(d,g)$ with $d \leq g$ with a few exceptions and we calculate the divisor class of an extension of these divisors to the compactified Hurwitz space.
We investigate two families of divisors which we expect to play a distinguished role in the global geometry of Hurwitz space. In particular, we show that they are extremal and rigid in the small degree regime $d \leq 5$. We further show their significance in the problem of computing the sweeping slope of Hurwitz space in these degrees. In the process, we prove various general results about the divisor theory of Hurwitz space, including a proof of the independence of the boundary components of the admissible covers compactification. Some basic open questions and further directions are discussed…
Splitting type loci are the natural generalizations of Brill-Noether varieties for curves with a distinguished map to the projective line. We give a tropical proof of a theorem of H. Larson, showing that splitting type loci have the expected dimension for general elements of the Hurwitz space. Our proof uses an explicit description of splitting type loci on a certain family of tropical curves. We further show that these tropical splitting type loci are connected in codimension one, and describe an algorithm for computing their cardinality when they are zero-dimensional. We provide a conjecture…
We study the irreducible components of special loci of curves whose group of symmetries is given as certain group extension. We introduce some relative Hurwitz data, which we show by using mixed étale cohomology theory, identifies some irreducible components for rational and normal non-abelian special loci and Hurwitz spaces. A heuristic, that is supported by three classes of examples, provides an additional context for building further irreducible loci.
We determine the cycle classes of effective divisors in the compactified Hurwitz spaces of curves of genus g with a linear system of degree d that extend the Maroni divisors on the open Hurwitz space. Our approach uses Chern classes associated to a global-to-local evaluation map of a vector bundle over a generic $P^1$-bundle over the Hurwitz space.
We compute the class of the locus in M_g of curves having a pencil with two unspecified triple ramification points. This is the first example of a geometric divisor on M_g which is not the pull-back of a divisor on the moduli space of pseudo-stable curves. This space, in which elliptic tails are replaced by cusps, appears as a result of the first divisorial contraction in the minimal model program for M_g. In particular, we show that our divisor picks-up the locus of Fermat cubic tails when restricted to the boundary divisor of elliptic tails. We also give various enumerative applications conc…
We introduce stable tropical curves and use these to count covers of the $p$-adic projective line of fixed degree and ramification types by Mumford curves in terms of tropical Hurwitz numbers. Our counts depend on the branch loci of the covers.
We consider a generalized Riemann-Hurwitz formula as it may be applied to rational maps between projective varieties having an indeterminacy set and fold-like singularities. The case of a holomorphic branched covering map is recalled. Then we see how the formula can be applied to iterated maps having branch-like singularities. Separately, we consider a further application involving the Chern classes of determinantal varieties when the latter are realized as the degeneracy loci of certain vector bundle morphisms.
We study properties of the tropical double Hurwitz loci defined by Bertram, Cavalieri and Markwig. We show that all such loci are connected in codimension one. If we mark preimages of simple ramification points, then for a generic choice of such points the resulting cycles are weakly irreducible, i.e. an integer multiple of an irreducible cycle. We study how Hurwitz cycles can be written as divisors of rational functions and show that they are numerically equivalent to a tropical version of a representation as a sum of boundary divisors. The results and counterexamples in this paper were obtai…
We construct Eagon--Northcott cycles on Hurwitz space and compare their classes to Kleiman's multiple point loci. Applying this construction towards the classification of Betti tables of canonical curves, we find that the value of the extremal Betti number records the number of minimal pencils. The result holds under transversality hypotheses equivalent to the virtual cycles having a geometric interpretation. We analyse the case of two minimal pencils, showing that the transversality hypotheses hold generically.
We show that various loci of stable curves of sufficiently large genus admitting degree $d$ covers of positive genus curves define non-tautological algebraic cycles on $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,N}$, assuming the non-vanishing of the $d$-th Fourier coefficient of a certain modular form. Our results build on those of Graber-Pandharipande and van Zelm for degree 2 covers of elliptic curves; the main new ingredient is a method to intersect the cycles in question with boundary strata, as developed recently by Schmitt-van Zelm and the author.
Let $f\colon C \rightarrow \mathbb{P}^1$ be a degree $k$ genus $g$ cover. The stratification of line bundles $L \in \mathrm{Pic}^d(C)$ by the splitting type of $f_*L$ is a refinement of the stratification by Brill-Noether loci $W^r_d(C)$. We prove that for general degree $k$ covers, these strata are smooth of the expected dimension. In particular, this determines the dimensions of all irreducible components of $W^r_d(C)$ for a general $k$-gonal curve (there are often components of different dimensions), extending results of Pflueger and Jensen-Ranganathan. The results here apply over any algeb…
Motivated by the realizability problem for principal tropical divisors with a fixed ramification profile, we explore the tropical geometry of the double ramification locus in $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$.There are two ways to define a tropical analogue of the double ramification locus: one as a locus of principal divisors, the other as a locus of finite effective ramified covers of a tree. We show that both loci admit a structure of a generalized cone complex in $M_{g,n}^{trop}$, with the latter contained in the former. We prove that the locus of principal divisors has cones of codimension zero in $M_{…
We study rational double Hurwitz cycles, i.e. loci of marked rational stable curves admitting a map to the projective line with assigned ramification profiles over two fixed branch points. Generalizing the phenomenon observed for double Hurwitz numbers, such cycles are piecewise polynomial in the entries of the special ramification; the chambers of polynomiality and wall crossings have an explicit and "modular" description. A main goal of this paper is to simultaneously carry out this investigation for the corresponding objects in tropical geometry, underlining a precise combinatorial duality …
Let $\mathcal H_g$ be the moduli space of genus $g$ hyperelliptic curves. In this note, we study the locus $\mathcal L$ in $\mathcal H_g$ of curves admitting a $G$-action of given ramification type $σ$ and inclusions between such loci. For each genus we determine the list of all possible groups, the inclusions among the loci, and the corresponding equations of the generic curve in $\mathcal L$. The proof of the results is based solely on representations of finite subgroups of $PGL_2 (\mathbb C)$ and the Riemann-Hurwitz formula.
Given two vector bundles E and F on a variety X and a morphism from Sym^2(E) to F, we compute the cohomology class of the locus in X where the kernel of this morphism contains a quadric of prescribed rank. Our formulas have many applications to moduli theory: (i) we find a simple proof of Borcherds' result that the Hodge class on the moduli space of polarized K3 surfaces of fixed genus is of Noether-Lefschetz type, (ii) we construct an explicit canonical divisor on the Hurwitz space parametrizing degree k covers of the projective line from curves of genus 2k-1, (iii) we provide a closed formul…
We study genus $g$ coverings of full moduli dimension of degree $d=[\frac {g+3} 2]$. There is a homomorphism between the corresponding Hurwitz space $\H$ of such covers to the moduli space $\M_g$ of genus $g$ curves. In the case $g=3$, using the signature of such covering we provide an equation for the generic ternary quartic. Further, we discuss the degenerate subloci of the corresponding Hurwitz space of such covers from the computational group theory viewpoint. In the last section, we show that one of these degenerate loci corresponds to the locus of curves with automorphism group $C_3$. We…
This paper gives a novel and compact proof that a metric graph consisting of a chain of loops of torsion order $0$ is Brill-Noether general (a theorem of Cools-Draisma-Payne-Robeva), and a finite or metric graph consisting of a chain of loops of torsion order $k$ is Hurwitz-Brill-Noether general in the sense of splitting loci (a theorem of Cook-Powell-Jensen). In fact, we prove a generalization to (metric) graphs with two marked points, that behaves well under vertex gluing. The key construction is a way to associate permutations to divisors on twice-marked graphs, simultaneously encoding the …