We study the moduli space of $d$-dimensional linear subspaces contained in a fixed $(d+1)$-dimensional linear variety $X$, and its tropicalization. We prove that these moduli spaces are linear subspaces themselves, and thus their tropicalization is completely determined by their associated (valuated) matroids. We show that these matroids can be interpreted as the matroid of lines of the hyperplane arrangement corresponding to $X$, and generically are equal to a Dilworth truncation of the free matroid. In this way, we can describe combinatorially tropicalized Fano schemes and tropicalizations of moduli spaces of stable maps of degree $1$ to a plane.
In this paper we study the moduli space of the tropicalizations of Riemann surfaces. We first tropicalize a smooth pointed Riemann surface by a graph defined by its (hyperbolic) pair of pants decomposition. Then we can construct the moduli space of tropicalizations based on a fixed regular tropicalization, and compactify it by adding strata parametrizing weighted contractions. We show that this compact moduli space is also Hausdorff. In the end, we compare this moduli space with the moduli space of Riemann surfaces, establishing a partial order-preserving correspondence between the stratificat…
We show that the tropicalization of an irreducible d-dimensional variety over a field of characteristic 0 is (d-l)-connected through codimension one, where l is the dimension of the lineality space of the tropicalization. From this we obtain a higher connectivity result for skeleta of rational polytopes. We also prove a tropical analogue of the Bertini Theorem: the intersection of the tropicalization of an irreducible variety with a generic hyperplane is again the tropicalization of an irreducible variety.
The image of the complement of a hyperplane arrangement under a monomial map can be tropicalized combinatorially using matroid theory. We apply this to classical moduli spaces that are associated with complex reflection arrangements. Starting from modular curves, we visit the Segre cubic, the Igusa quartic, and moduli of marked del Pezzo surfaces of degrees 2 and 3. Our primary example is the Burkhardt quartic, whose tropicalization is a 3-dimensional fan in 39-dimensional space. This effectuates a synthesis of concrete and abstract approaches to tropical moduli of genus 2 curves.
We show that the moduli spaces of irreducible labeled parametrized marked rational curves in toric varieties can be embedded into algebraic tori such that their tropicalizations are the analogous tropical moduli spaces. These embeddings are shown to respect the evaluation morphisms in the sense that evaluation commutes with tropicalization. With this particular setting in mind we prove a general correspondence theorem for enumerative problems which are defined via "evaluation maps" in both the algebraic and tropical world. Applying this to our motivational example we reprove Nishinou and Siebe…
We show that the tropicalization of an irreducible variety over a complete or algebraically closed valued field is connected through codimension 1, giving an affirmative answer in all characteristics to a question posed by Einsiedler, Lind, and Thomas in 2003.
Let $X$ be an algebraic variety and let $S$ be a tropical variety associated to $X$. We study the tropicalization map from the moduli space of stable maps into $X$ to the moduli space of tropical curves in $S$. We prove that it is a continuous map and that its image is compact and polyhedral. Loosely speaking, when we deform algebraic curves in $X$, the associated tropical curves in $S$ deform continuously; moreover, the locus of realizable tropical curves inside the space of all tropical curves is compact and polyhedral. Our main tools are Berkovich spaces, formal models, balancing conditions…
We study the topology of the tropical moduli space parametrizing stable tropical curves of genus g with n marked points in which the bounded edges have total length 1, and prove that it is highly connected. Using the identification of this space with the dual complex of the boundary in the moduli space of stable algebraic curves, we give a simple expression for the top weight cohomology of M_{1,n} as a representation of the symmetric group and describe an explicit dual basis in homology consisting of abelian cycles for the pure mapping class group.
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.
Tropicalization is a procedure that assigns polyhedral complexes to algebraic subvarieties of a torus. If one fixes a weighted polyhedral complex, one may study the set of all subvarieties of a toric variety that have that complex as their tropicalization. This gives a "tropical realization" moduli functor. We use rigid analytic geometry and the combinatorics of Chow complexes as studied by Alex Fink to prove that when the ambient toric variety is quasiprojective, the moduli functor is represented by a rigid space. As an application, we show that if a polyhedral complex is the tropicalization …
We study the relationship between tropical and classical Hurwitz moduli spaces. Following recent work of Abramovich, Caporaso and Payne, we outline a tropicalization for the moduli space of generalized Hurwitz covers of an arbitrary genus curve. Our approach is to appeal to the geometry of admissible covers, which compactify the Hurwitz scheme. We define and construct a moduli space of tropical admissible covers, and study its relationship with the skeleton of the Berkovich analytification of the classical space of admissible covers. We use techniques from non-archimedean geometry to show that…
We study the moduli space of metric graphs that arise from tropical plane curves. There are far fewer such graphs than tropicalizations of classical plane curves. For fixed genus $g$, our moduli space is a stacky fan whose cones are indexed by regular unimodular triangulations of Newton polygons with $g$ interior lattice points. It has dimension $2g+1$ unless $g \leq 3$ or $g = 7$. We compute these spaces explicitly for $g \leq 5$.
We study the Berkovich analytification of the space of genus $0$ logarithmic stable maps to a toric variety $X$ and present applications to both algebraic and tropical geometry. On algebraic side, insights from tropical geometry give two new geometric descriptions of this space of maps -- (1) as an explicit toroidal modification of $\overline M_{0,n}\times X$ and (2) as a tropical compactification in a toric variety. On the combinatorial side, we prove that the tropicalization of the space of genus $0$ logarithmic stable maps coincides with the space of tropical stable maps, giving a large new…
We identify certain Gromov-Witten invariants counting rational curves with given incidence and tangency conditions with the Betti numbers of moduli spaces of point configurations in projective spaces. On the Gromov-Witten side, S. Fomin and G. Mikhalkin established a recurrence relation via tropicalization, which is realized on the moduli space side using Donaldson-Thomas invariants of subspace quivers.
We further analyze the moduli space of stable curves with level structure provided by Chiodo and Farkas in \cite{AA}. Their result builds upon Harris and Mumford analysis of the locus of singularities of the moduli space of curves and shows in particular that for levels 2, 3, 4, and 6 the locus of noncanonical singularities is completely analogous to the locus described by Harris and Mumford, it has codimension 2 and arises from the involution of elliptic tails carrying a trivial level structure. For the remaining levels (5, 7, and beyond), the picture also involves components of higher codime…
We show that certain geometrically defined higher codimension cycles are extremal in the effective cone of the moduli space $\overline{\mathcal M}_{g,n}$ of stable genus $g$ curves with $n$ ordered marked points. In particular, we prove that codimension two boundary strata are extremal and exhibit extremal boundary strata of higher codimension. We also show that the locus of hyperelliptic curves with a marked Weierstrass point in $\overline{\mathcal M}_{3,1}$ and the locus of hyperelliptic curves in $\overline{\mathcal M}_4$ are extremal cycles. In addition, we exhibit infinitely many extremal…
We study moduli spaces of rational weighted stable tropical curves, and their connections with the classical Hassett spaces. Given a vector w of weights, the moduli space of tropical w-stable curves can be given the structure of a balanced fan if and only if w has only heavy and light entries. In this case, we can express the moduli space as the Bergman fan of a graphic matroid. Furthermore, we realize the tropical moduli space as a geometric tropicalization, and as a Berkovich skeleton, of the classical moduli space. This builds on previous work of Tevelev, Gibney--Maclagan, and Abramovich--C…
We prove a conjecture of Gavril Farkas claiming that for all integers r \geq 2 and g \geq \binom{r+2}{2} there exists a component of the locus \mathcal{S}^r_g of spin curves with a theta characteristic L such that h^0(L) \geq r+1 and h^0(L)\equiv r+1 (mod 2) which has codimension \binom{r+1}{2} inside the moduli space \mathcal{S}_g of spin curves of genus g.
We determine generators for the codimension 1 Chow group of the moduli spaces of genus zero stable maps to flag varieties G/P. In the case of SL flags, we find all relations between our generators, showing that they essentially come from $\bar M_{0,n}$. In addition, we analyze the codimension 2 classes on the moduli spaces of stable maps to Grassmannians and prove a new codimension 2 relation. This will lead to a partial reconstruction theorem for the Grassmannian of 2 planes.
We prove that for all integers $r \geq 2$ and $g \geq \lfloor \frac{r^2+10r+1}{4} \rfloor$ there exists a component of the locus $\mathcal{S}^r_g$ of spin curves with a theta characteristic $L$ such that $h^0(L) \geq r+1$ and $h^0(L)\equiv r+1 (\text{mod} 2)$ which has expected codimension $\binom{r+1}{2}$ inside the moduli space $\mathcal{S}_g$ of spin curves of genus $g$.
Let M_g be the moduli space of smooth curves of genus g >= 3, and \bar{M}_g the Deligne-Mumford compactification in terms of stable curves. Let \bar{M}_g^{[1]} be an open set of \bar{M}_g consisting of stable curves of genus g with one node at most. In this paper, we determine the necessary and sufficient condition to guarantee that a Q-divisor D on \bar{M}_g is nef over \bar{M}_g^{[1]}, that is, (D . C) >= 0 for all irreducible curves C on \bar{M}_g with C \cap \bar{M}_g^{[1]} \not= \emptyset.
In this paper we give a lower bound for the codimension of the Andreotti-Mayer loci in the moduli space of principally polarized complex abelian varieties. We also present a conjecture on this codimension.
We prove the following "linkage" theorem: two p-regular graphs of the same genus can be obtained from one another by a finite alternating sequence of one-edge-contractions; moreover this preserves 3-edge-connectivity. We use the linkage theorem to prove that various moduli spaces of tropical curves are connected through codimension one.
Let us consider the locus in the moduli space of curves of genus 2k defined by curves with a pencil of degree k. Since the Brill-Noether number is equal to -2, such a locus has codimension two. Using the method of test surfaces, we compute the class of its closure in the moduli space of stable curves.
We contribute to the foundations of tropical geometry with a view towards formulating tropical moduli problems, and with the moduli space of curves as our main example. We propose a moduli functor for the moduli space of curves and show that it is representable by a geometric stack over the category of rational polyhedral cones. In this framework the natural forgetful morphisms between moduli spaces of curves with marked points function as universal curves. Our approach to tropical geometry permits tropical moduli problems---moduli of curves or otherwise---to be extended to logarithmic schemes…
Hassett's moduli spaces of weighted stable curves form an important class of alternate modular compactifications of the moduli space of smooth curves with marked points. In this article we define a tropical analogue of these moduli spaces and show that the naive set-theoretic tropicalization map can be identified with a natural deformation retraction onto the non-Archimedean skeleton. This result generalizes work of Abramovich, Caporaso, and Payne treating the Deligne-Knudsen-Mumford compactification of the moduli space of smooth curves with marked points. We also study tropical analogues of t…
We use tropical and nonarchimedean geometry to study the moduli space of genus $0$ stable maps to $\mathbb{P}^1$ relative to two points. This space is exhibited as a tropical compactification in a toric variety. Moreover, the fan of this toric variety may be interpreted as a moduli space for tropical relative stable maps with the same discrete data. As a consequence, we confirm an expectation of Bertram and the first two authors, that the tropical Hurwitz cycles are tropicalizations of classical Hurwitz cycles. As a second application, we obtain a full descendant correspondence for genus $0$ r…
In this article we develop a new way of systematically constructing infinitely many families of smooth subvarieties $X$ of any given dimension $m$, $m \geq 3$, and any given codimension in $\mathbb P^N$, embedded by complete subcanonical linear series, and, in particular, in the range of Hartshorne's conjecture. We accomplish this by showing the existence of everywhere non--reduced schemes called ropes, embedded in $\mathbb P^N$, and by smoothing them. In the range $3 \leq m < N/2$, we construct smooth subvarieties, embedded by complete subcanonical linear series, that are not complete interse…
Let $V$ be a subvariety of codimension $\leq g$ of the moduli space $\cA_g$ of principally polarized abelian varieties of dimension $g$ or of the moduli space $\tM_g$ of curves of compact type of genus $g$. We prove that the set $E_1(V)$ of elements of $V$ which map onto an elliptic curve is analytically dense in $V$. From this we deduce that if $V \subset \cA_g$ is complete, then $V$ has codimension equal to $g$ and the set of elements of $V$ isogenous to a product of $g$ elliptic curves is countable and analytically dense in $V$. We also prove a technical property of the conormal sheaf of $V…
This is a note on calculating intersection numbers on moduli spaces of curves. A codimension 3 relation among tautological classes on the moduli space of genus 4 curves is given.
We obtain a formula which relates the log canonical divisor of the ambient space with that of a subvariety of codimension 2 by using Knudsen's moduli space of pointed stable curves of genus 0.
For each universal genus-$g$ polarization $μ$ of degree $d$, we construct a universal tropical Jacobian $J_{μ,g}^{trop}$ as a generalized cone complex over the moduli space of stable pointed genus-$g$ tropical curves. We show several properties of the space $J_{μ,g}^{trop}$. In particular, we prove that the natural compactification of $J_{μ,g}^{trop}$ is the tropicalization of the Esteves' compactified universal Jacobian over the moduli space of stable pointed genus-$g$ curves.
In this paper we answer a question posed by Horikawa in 1978, who showed that the above moduli space is composed of 11 locally closed strata building up 4 irreducible components and having at most 3 connected components. We prove that the number of connected components is at most two and pose the question whether this number is exactly two. The main new idea is to analyse the strata in the moduli space where the canonical divisor is 2-divisible on the canonical model (as a Weil divisor). In this way we obtain a semicanonical ring $\B$ which is a Gorenstein ring of codimension 4 for type $III_b…
We study the cones in the first Voronoi or perfect cone decomposition of quadratic forms with respect to the question which of these cones are basic or simplicial. As a consequence we deduce that the singular locus of the moduli stack ${\mathcal A_g^{\mathop{Perf}}}$, the toroidal compactification of the moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties of dimension $g$ given by this decomposition, has codimension $10$ if $g \geq 4$. Moreover we describe the non-simplicial locus in codimension $10$. We also show that the second Voronoi compactification ${\mathcal A_{g}^{\mathop{Vor}}}$ h…
In the first part of this paper, we discuss the notion of irreducibility of cycles in the moduli spaces of n-marked rational tropical curves. We prove that Psi-classes and vital divisors are irreducible, and that locally irreducible divisors are also globally irreducible for n \leq 6. In the second part of the paper, we show that the locus of point configurations in (\R^2)^n in special position for counting rational plane curves (defined in two different ways) can be given the structure a tropical cycle of codimension 1. In addition, we compute explicitly the weights of this cycle.
We prove that the moduli spaces of parabolic symplectic/orthogonal bundles on a smooth curve are globally F regular type. As a consequence, all higher cohomology of theta line bundle vanish. During the proof, we develop a method to estimate codimension, and consider the infinite grassmannians for parabolic $G$ bundles.
Moduli spaces of semistable sheaves on a K3 or abelian surface with respect to a general ample divisor are shown to be locally factorial, with the exception of symmetric products of a K3 or abelian surface and the class of moduli spaces found by O'Grady. Consequently, since singular moduli space that do not belong to these exceptional cases have singularities in codimension $\geq4$ they do no admit projective symplectic resolutions.
We introduce a moduli functor for varieties whose tropicalization realizes a given weighted fan and show that this functor is an algebraic space in general, and is represented by a scheme of finite type when the associated toric variety is quasiprojective. We study the geometry of these tropical realization spaces for the matroid fans studied by Ardila and Klivans, and show that the tropical realization space of a matroid fan is a torus torsor over the realization space of the matroid. As a consequence, we deduce that these tropical realization spaces satisfy Murphy's Law.
In the case of the fine Simpson moduli spaces of 1-dimensional sheaves supported on plane quartics, the subvariety of sheaves that are not locally free on their support is connected, singular, and has codimension 2.
In this paper we investigate codimension one Fano distributions on Fano manifolds with Picard number one. We classify Fano distributions of maximal index on complete intersections in weighted projective spaces, Fano contact manifolds, Grassmannians of lines and their linear sections, and describe their moduli spaces. As a consequence, we obtain a classification of codimension one del Pezzo distributions on Fano manifolds with Picard number one.
We study codimension one holomorphic distributions on the projective three-space, analyzing the properties of their singular schemes and tangent sheaves. In particular, we provide a classification of codimension one distributions of degree at most 2 with locally free tangent sheaves, and show that codimension one distributions of arbitrary degree with only isolated singularities have stable tangent sheaves. Furthermore, we describe the moduli space of distributions in terms of Grothendieck's Quot-scheme for the tangent bundle. In certain cases, we show that the moduli space of codimension one …
Let E be a plane in an algebraic torus over an algebraically closed field. Given a balanced 1-dimensional fan C in the tropicalization of E, i.e. in the Bergman fan of the corresponding matroid, we give a complete algorithmic answer to the question whether or not C can be realized as the tropicalization of an algebraic curve contained in E. Moreover, in the case of realizability the algorithm also determines the dimension of the moduli space of all algebraic curves in E tropicalizing to C, a concrete simple example of such a curve, and whether C can also be realized by an irreducible algebraic…
Let $f \colon X \to Y$ be the blow-up of a smooth projective variety $Y$ along its codimension two smooth closed subvariety. In this paper, we show that the moduli space of stable sheaves on $X$ and $Y$ are connected by a sequence of flip-like diagrams. The result is a higher dimensional generalization of the result of Nakajima and Yoshioka, which is the case of $\dim Y=2$. As an application of our general result, we study the birational geometry of the Hilbert scheme of two points.
The object of this note is the moduli spaces of cubic fourfolds (resp., Gushel-Mukai fourfolds) which contain some special rational surfaces. Under some hypotheses on the families of such surfaces, we develop a general method to show the unirationality of the moduli spaces of the $n$-pointed such fourfolds. We apply this to some codimension 1 loci of cubic fourfolds (resp., Gushel-Mukai fourfolds) appeared in the literature recently.
The main purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual approach to understanding the extension of the Prym map from the space of admissible double covers of stable curves to different toroidal compactifications of the moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties. By separating the combinatorial problems from the geometric aspects we can reduce this to the computation of certain monodromy cones. In this way we not only shed new light on the extension results of Alexeev, Birkenhake, Hulek, and Vologodsky for the second Voronoi toroidal compactification, but we also apply this to ot…
We prove the Tate conjecture for divisor classes and the Mumford-Tate conjecture for the cohomology in degree 2 for varieties with $h^{2,0}=1$ over a finitely generated field of characteristic 0, under a mild assumption on their moduli. As an application of this general result, we prove the Tate and Mumford-Tate conjectures for some classes of algebraic surfaces with $p_g=1$.
For a smooth projective curve C with genus g >= 2 and a degree 1 line bundle L on C, let M := SU_{C}(r;L) be the moduli space of stable vector bundles of rank r and with the fixed determinant L. In this paper, we study the small rational curves on M and estimate the codimension of the locus of the small rational curves. In particular, we determine all small rational curves when r = 3.
The aim of this paper is to study codimension one foliations on rational homogeneous spaces, with a focus on the moduli space of foliations of low degree on Grassmannians and cominuscule spaces. Using equivariant techniques, we show that codimension one degree zero foliations on (ordinary, orthogonal, symplectic) Grassmannians of lines, some spinor varieties, some Lagrangian Grassmannians, the Cayley plane (an $E_6$-variety) and the Freudenthal variety (an $E_7$-variety) are identified with restrictions of foliations on the ambient projective space. We also provide some evidence that such resu…
In the Simpson moduli space $M$ of semi-stable sheaves with Hilbert polynomial $dm-1$ on a projective plane we study the closed subvariety $M'$ of sheaves that are not locally free on their support. We show that for $d\ge 4$ it is a singular subvariety of codimension $2$ in $M$. The blow up of $M$ along $M'$ is interpreted as a (partial) modification of $M\setminus M'$ by vector bundles (on support).
Let $X$ be a smooth projective variety. We show that the map that sends a codimension one distribution on $X$ to its singular scheme is a morphism from the moduli space of distributions into a Hilbert scheme. We describe its fibers and, when $X = \mathbb{P}^n$, compute them via syzygies. As an application, we describe the moduli spaces of degree 1 distributions on $\mathbb{P}^3$. We also give the minimal graded free resolution for the ideal of the singular scheme of a generic distribution on $\mathbb{P}^3$.
