We study a 3-dimensional stratum $\mathcal{M}_{3,V}$ of the moduli space $\mathcal{M}_3$ of curves of genus $3$ parameterizing curves $Y$ that admit a certain action of $V= C_2\times C_2$. We determine the possible types of the stable reduction of these curves to characteristic different from $2$. We define invariants for $\mathcal{M}_{3,V}$ and characterize the occurrence of each of the reduction types in terms of them. We also calculate the $j$-invariant (resp. the Igusa invariants) of the irreducible components of positive genus of the stable reduction of $Y$ in terms of the invariants.
We study the $p$-rank stratification of the moduli space of cyclic degree $\ell$ covers of the projective line in characteristic $p$ for distinct primes $p$ and $\ell$. The main result is about the intersection of the $p$-rank $0$ stratum with the boundary of the moduli space of curves. When $\ell=3$ and $p \equiv 2 \bmod 3$ is an odd prime, we prove that there exists a smooth trielliptic curve in characteristic $p$, with every genus $g$, signature type $(r,s)$ and $p$-rank $f$ satisfying the clear necessary conditions.
The moduli stack of Deligne-Mumford stable curves of genus g admits a stratification, so that the number of nodes of the curves belonging to one stratum is constant. The irreducible components of the stratum corresponding to curves with exactly 3g-4 nodes are one-dimensional substacks. We show how they can be related to moduli stacks of (permutation classes of) pointed stable curves. Using this, we construct all components of this stratum in a new way as quotient stacks.
The dimension of the moduli space of smooth pointed curves with prescribed Weierstrass semigroup at the market point is computed for three families of symmetric semigroups of multiplicity six. We also collect the dimensions of such moduli spaces for all semigroups of genus not greater than seven. A question related to an improvement of a Deligne--Pinkham's bound is also formulated, suggesting that the positive graded part of the first module of the cotangent complex associated to a semigroup algebra is a missing invariant. The answer for this question is positive for all these moduli that we k…
We describe a natural open stratum in the moduli space of smooth real pointed quartic curves in the projective plane. This stratum consists of real isomorphism classes of pairs $(C, p)$ with $p$ a real point on the curve $C$ such that the tangent line at $p$ intersects the curve in two distinct points besides $p$. We will prove that this stratum consists of $20$ connected components. Each of these components has a real toric structure defined by an involution in the Weyl group of type $E_7$.
Consider all moduli points corresponding with polarized abelian varieties in characteristic p such that the associated quasi-polarized p-divisible group is geometrically isomorphic with a given one. This defines a subset C of the moduli space. We show that C is closed in the corresponding open Newton polygon stratum. In this way the stratum is the disjoint union of such "central leaves". Under local-local isogenies we consider the orbit of one point: we obtain a second type of leaves. Every stratum, up to a finite map, is the product of one of its central leaves and one of its isogeny leaves. …
We show how to calculate the Euler characteristic of a local system associated to an irreducible representation of the symplectic group of genus 3 on the moduli space of curves of genus 3 and the moduli space of principally polarized abelian varieties of dimension 3.
In this note, we give a so-called representative classification for the strata by automorphism group of smooth $\bar{k}$-plane curves of genus $6$, where $\bar{k}$ is a fixed separable closure of a field $k$ of characteristic $p = 0$ or $p > 13$. We start with a classification already obtained by the first author and we use standard techniques. Interestingly, in the way to get these families for the different strata, we find two remarkable phenomenons that did not appear before. One is the existence of a non $0$-dimensional final stratum of plane curves. At a first sight it may sound odd, but …
In this paper, we prove that for the oper stratification of the de Rham moduli space $M_{\mathrm{dR}}(X,r)$, the closed oper stratum is the unique minimal stratum with dimension $r^2(g-1)+g+1$, and the open dense stratum consisting of irreducible flat bundles with stable underlying vector bundles is the unique maximal stratum.
We show that for many strata of Abelian differentials in low genus the sum of Lyapunov exponents for the Teichmueller geodesic flow is the same for all Teichmueller curves in that stratum, hence equal to the sum of Lyapunov exponents for the whole stratum. This behavior is due to the disjointness property of Teichmueller curves with various geometrically defined divisors on moduli spaces of curves.
We prove that the moduli space of compact genus three Riemann surfaces contains only finitely many algebraically primitive Teichmueller curves. For the stratum consisting of holomorphic one-forms in genus three with a single zero, our approach to finiteness uses the Harder-Narasimhan filtration of the Hodge bundle over a Teichmueller curve to obtain new information on the locations of the zeros of eigenforms. By passing to the boundary of moduli space, this gives explicit constraints on the cusps of Teichmueller curves in terms of cross-ratios of six points on a projective line. These constrai…
We describe the invariants of plane quartic curves -- nonhyperelliptic genus 3 curves in their canonical model -- as determined by Dixmier and Ohno, with application to the classification of curves with given structure. In particular, we determine modular equations for the strata in the moduli space $\Me_3$ of plane quartics which have at least seven hyperflexes, and obtain an computational characterization of curves in these strata.
We make cohomological computations related to the moduli space of genus three curves with symplectic level two structure by means of counting points over finite fields. In particular, we determine the cohomology groups of the quartic locus as representations of the symmetric group on seven elements.
We give a description of the Kontsevich-Zorich strata for genus 3 in terms of root system data. For each non-open stratum we obtain a presentation of its orbifold fundamental group.
Let M_2 be the moduli space that classifies genus 2 curves. If a curve C is defined over a field k, the corresponding moduli point P=[C] is defined over k. Mestre solved the converse problem for curves with Aut(C) isomorphic to C_2. Given a moduli point defined over k, Mestre finds an obstruction to the existence of a corresponding curve defined over k, that is an element in Br_2(k) not always trivial. In this paper we prove that for all the other possibilities of Aut(C), every moduli point defined over k is represented by a curve defined over k. We also give an explicit construction of such a…
We study the moduli space $\mathcal{AS}_{g}$ of Artin-Schreier curves of genus $g$ over an algebraically closed field $k$ of positive characteristic $p$. The moduli space is partitioned by irreducible strata, where each stratum parameterizes Artin-Schreier curves whose ramification divisors have the same coefficients. We construct deformations of these curves to study the relations between those strata. As an application, when $p=3$, we prove that $\mathcal{AS}_{g}$ is connected for all possible $g$. When $p>3$, it turns out that $\mathcal{AS}_{g}$ is connected for sufficiently large value of …
We study genus 2 curves over finite fields of small characteristic. The $p$-rank $f$ of a curve induces a stratification of the coarse moduli space $\mathcal{M}_2$ of genus 2 curves up to isomorphism. We are interested in the size of those strata for all $f \in \{0,1,2\}$. In characteristic 2 and 3, previous results show that the supersingular $f=0$ stratum has size $q$. We show that for $q=3^r$, over $\mathbb{F}_q$ the non-ordinary $f=1$ and ordinary $f=2$ strata are of size $q(q-1)$ and $q^2(q-1)$, respectively. We give results found from computer calculations which suggest that these formul…
We study closures of GL_2(R)-orbits on the total space of the Hodge bundle over the moduli space of curves under the assumption that they are algebraic manifolds. We show that, in the generic stratum, such manifolds are the whole stratum, the hyperelliptic locus or parameterize curves whose Jacobian has additional endomorphisms. This follows from a cohomological description of the tangent bundle to strata. For non-generic strata similar results can be shown by a case-by-case inspection. We also propose to study a notion of 'linear manifold' that comprises Teichmueller curves, Hilbert modular s…
Let $\mathcal{M}_{g}$ be the moduli space of compact connected hyperbolic surfaces of genus $g\geq2$, and ${\mathcal B}_g \subset {\mathcal M}_{g} $ its branch locus. Let $\widehat{\mathcal{M}_{g}}$ be the Deligne-Mumford compactification of the moduli space of smooth, complete, connected surfaces of genus $g\geq 2$ over $\mathbb{C}$. The branch locus ${\mathcal B}_g$ is stratified by smooth locally closed equisymmetric strata, where a stratum consists of hyperbolic surfaces with equivalent action of their preserving orientation isometry group. Any stratum can be determined by a certain epimor…
We show that the moduli spaces of non-triple cyclic coverings of genus 2 curves and that of even spin curves of genus 2 are birationally isomorphic via the Prym map. We describe the log canonical models of the moduli space of even spin curves of genus 2 and use this to extend the above birational map.
We prove that the coarse moduli space of curves of genus 6 is birational to an arithmetic quotient of a bounded symmetric domain of type IV by giving a period map to the moduli space of some lattice-polarized K3 surfaces.
We prove that the orbifold desingularization of the moduli space of stable maps of genus g = 1 recently constructed by Vakil and Zinger has vanishing rational cohomology groups in odd degree k < 10.
Given a collection of boundary divisors in the moduli space of stable genus-zero n-pointed curves, Giansiracusa proved that their intersection is nonempty if and only if all pairwise intersections are nonempty. We give a complete classification of the pairs (g,n) for which the analogous statement holds in the moduli space of n-pointed curves of genus g.
We compute the rational cohomology of the moduli space of trigonal curves of genus 5. We do this by considering their natural embedding in the first Hirzebruch surface and by using Gorinov-Vassiliev's method.
The global geometry of the moduli spaces of higher spin curves and their birational classification is largely unknown for g >= 2 and r > 2. Using quite related geometric constructions, we almost complete the picture of the known results in genus g <= 4 showing the rationality of the moduli spaces of even and odd 4-spin curves of genus 3, of odd spin curves of genus 4 and of 3-spin curves of genus 4.
We compute cohomology of the moduli space of genus three curves with level two structure and some related spaces. In particular, we determine the cohomology groups of the moduli space of plane quartics with level two structure as representations of the symplectic group on a six dimensional vector space over the field of two elements. We also make the analogous computations for some related spaces such as moduli spaces of genus three curves with a marked points and strata of the moduli space of Abelian differentials of genus three.
We investigate the (small) quantum cohomology ring of the moduli spaces of stable n-pointed curves of genus 0. In particular, we determine an explicit presentation in the case n=5 and we outline a computational approach to the case n=6.
In this article we consider the moduli space of smooth $n$-pointed non-hyperelliptic curves of genus 3. In the pursuit of cohomological information about this space, we make $\mathbb{S}_n$-equivariant counts of its numbers of points defined over finite fields for $n \leq 7$. Combining this with results on the moduli spaces of smooth pointed curves of genus 0, 1 and 2, and the moduli space of smooth hyperelliptic curves of genus 3, we can determine the $\mathbb{S}_n$-equivariant Galois and Hodge structure of the ($\ell$-adic respectively Betti) cohomology of the moduli space of stable curves of…
A formula for the generating function of the Weil-Petersson volumes of moduli spaces of pointed curves that is identical to the genus expansion of the free energy in two dimensional gravity is obtained. The contribution of arbitrary genus is expressed in terms of the Bessel function $J_0$.
We construct a smooth Artin stack parameterizing the stable weighted curves of genus one with twisted fields and prove that it is isomorphic to the blowup stack of the moduli of genus one weighted curves studied by Hu and Li. This leads to a blowup-free construction of Vakil-Zinger's desingularization of the moduli of genus one stable maps to projective spaces. This construction provides the cornerstone of the theory of stacks with twisted fields, which is thoroughly studied in arXiv:2005.03384 and leads to a blowup-free resolution of the stable map moduli of genus two.
We study the moduli space of stable sheaves of Euler characteristic 2, supported on curves of arithmetic genus 2 contained in a smooth quadric surface. We show that this moduli space is rational. We compute its Betti numbers and we give a classification of the stable sheaves involving locally free resolutions.
We show that the coarse moduli space $\cR_5$ of étale double covers of curves of genus~5 over the complex numbers is unirational. We give two slightly different arguments, one purely geometric and the other more computational.
Using the connection discovered by Hassett between the Noether-Lefschetz moduli space of special cubic fourfolds of discriminant 42 and the moduli space F_{22} of polarized K3 surfaces of genus 22, we show that the universal K3 surface over F_{22} is unirational.
We calculate the cycle class of the Hurwitz divisor $D_2$ on the moduli space of stable curves of genus $g=2k$ given by the degree $k+1$ covers of the projective line with simple ramification points, two of which lie in the same fibre. We also study some aspects of the geometry of the natural map of the Hurwitz space of admissible covers of degree $k+1$ and genus $2k$ to the moduli space of stable curves of genus $2k$.
We study here the tautological rings of the moduli spaces of compact Riemann surfaces of genus 1,2,3 and 4 with marked points. The paper presents the complete descriptions of these rings by describing the groups of all degrees.
We compute the stringy E function of the moduli space of rank 2 bundles over a Riemann surface of genus 3. In doing so, we answer a question of Batyrev about the stringy E functions of the GIT quotients of linear representations.
In this paper, we investigate the moduli of surfaces of general type admitting genus 2 fibrations with irregularity q = g_b + 1, where g_b >= 2 is the genus of the base. We prove that smooth fibrations are parametrized by a unique component in the moduli space. The same result applies to nonsmooth fibrations with special values of g_b. In the general case, we give a bound on the dimension of the corresponding connected components.
This article is a survey of P. Katsylo's proof that the moduli space of smooth projective complex curves of genus 3 is rational. We hope to make the argument more comprehensible and transparent by emphasizing the underlying geometry in the proof and its key structural features.
We study the moduli space of stable sheaves of Euler characteristic 1, supported on curves of arithmetic genus 2 contained in a smooth quadric surface. We show that this moduli space is rational. We give a classification of the stable sheaves involving locally free resolutions or extensions. We compute the Betti numbers by studying the variation of the moduli spaces of alpha-semi-stable pairs.
S. Kondō used periods of $K3$ surfaces to prove that the moduli space of genus three curves is birational to an arithmetic quotient of a complex 6-ball. In this paper we study Heegner divisors in the ball quotient, given by arithmetically defined hyperplane sections of the ball. We show that the corresponding loci of genus three curves are given by: hyperelliptic curves, singular plane quartics and plane quartics admitting certain rational "splitting curves".
