We compute the Mori cone of curves of the moduli space \M_{g,n} of stable n-pointed curves of genus g in the case when g and n are relatively small. For instance, we show that for g<14 every curve in \M_g is numerically equivalent to an effective sum of 1-strata (loci of curves with 3g-4 nodes). We also prove that the nef cone of \M_{0,6} is composed of 11 natural subcones all contained in the convex hull of boundary classes. We apply this result to classify the fibrations of the moduli space of rational curves with n<7 marked points.
We prove that, assuming the F-conjecture, the log canonical model of the pair $(\bar{M}_{0,n}, \sum a_i ψ_i)$ is the Hassett's moduli space of weighted pointed stable rational curves without any modification of weight coefficients. For the boundary weight cases, we prove that the birational model is the GIT quotient of the product of the projective lines. This is a generalization of Simpson's theorem for symmetric weight cases.
We prove that the moduli space of $n$-pointed stable maps $\overline{M}_{0,n}(\mathbb{P}^1,1)$ is a Mori dream space whenever the moduli space $\overline{M}_{0,n+3}$ of $(n+3)$-pointed rational curves is. We also show that $\overline{M}_{0,n}(\mathbb{P}^1,1)$ is a log Fano variety for $n \le 5$.
We introduce the moduli space $R \bar{M}_{2k,l}$ of pointed real curves of genus zero and give its natural stratification. The strata of $R \bar{M}_{2k,l}$ correspond to real curves of genus zero with different degeneration types and are encoded by their dual trees with certain decorations. By using this stratification, we calculate the first Stiefel-Whitney class of $R \bar{M}_{2k,l}$ and construct the orientation double cover $R \widetilde{M}_{2k,l}$$ of $R \bar{M}_{2k,l}$.
We prove that the moduli space of polarized $K3$ surfaces of genus eleven with $n$ marked points is unirational when $n\leq 6$ and uniruled when $n\leq7$. As a consequence, we settle a long standing but not proved assertion about the unirationality of $\cal{M}_{11,n}$ for $n\leq6$. We also prove that the moduli space of polarized $K3$ surfaces of genus eleven with $9$ marked points has non-negative Kodaira dimension.
We give a combinatorial description of the rational cohomology of the moduli spaces of pointed genus 1 curves with $n$ marked points and level $N$ structures. More precisely, we explicitly describe the $E_2$ term of the Leray spectral sequence of the forgetful mapping $\EuScript{M}_{1,n}(N)\to\EuScript{M}_{1,1}(N)$ and show that the result is isomorphic to the rational cohomology of $\EuScript{M}_{1,n}(N)$ as a rational mixed Hodge structure equipped with an action of the symmetric group $\mathfrak{S}_n$. The classical moduli space $\EuScript{M}_{1,n}$ is the particular case N=1.
We prove that if $m \ge n-3$ then every $S_m$-invariant F-nef divisor on the moduli space of stable $n$-pointed curves of genus zero is linearly equivalent to an effective combination of boundary divisors. As an application, we determine the Mori cone of the moduli spaces of stable curves of small genus with few marked points.
We complete Mori's program with symmetric divisors for the moduli space of stable six pointed rational curves. As an application, we give an alternative proof of the complete Mori's program of the moduli space of genus two stable curves, done by Hassett.
Let X_n := \bar M_{0,n}, the moduli space of n-pointed stable genus zero curves, and let X_{n,m} be the quotient of X_n by the action of the symmetric group S_{n-m} on the last n-m marked points. The cones of effective divisors of X_{n,m}, m = 0,1,2, are calculated. Using this, upper bounds for the cones Mov(X_{n,m}) generated by divisors with moving linear systems are calculated, m = 0,1, along with the induced bounds on the cones of ample divisors of \bar M_g and \bar M_{g,1}. As an application, the cone of effective divisors of \bar M_{2,1} is analyzed in detail.
We consider the moduli space $\Hh_{g,n}$ of $n$-pointed smooth hyperelliptic curves of genus $g$. In order to get cohomological information we wish to make $\s_n$-equivariant counts of the numbers of points defined over finite fields of this moduli space. We find recurrence relations in the genus that these numbers fulfill. Thus, if we can make $\s_n$-equivariant counts of $\Hh_{g,n}$ for low genus, then we can do this for every genus. Information about curves of genus 0 and 1 is then found to be sufficient to compute the answers for $\Hh_{g,n}$ for all $g$ and for $n \leq 7$. These results ar…
In this paper we study the moduli stack ${\mathcal U}_{1,n}^{ns}$ of curves of arithmetic genus 1 with n marked points, forming a nonspecial divisor. In arXiv:1511.03797 this stack was realized as the quotient of an explicit scheme $\widetilde{\mathcal U}_{1,n}^{ns}$, affine of finite type over ${\Bbb P}^{n-1}$, by the action of ${\Bbb G}_m^n$ . Our main result is an explicit description of the corresponding GIT semistable loci in $\widetilde{\mathcal U}_{1,n}^{ns}$. This allows us to identify some of the GIT quotients with some of the modular compactifications of ${\mathcal M}_{1,n}$ defined …
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…
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 complete Mori's program with symmetric divisors for the moduli space of stable seven pointed rational curves. We describe all birational models in terms of explicit blow-ups and blow-downs. We also give a moduli theoretic description of the first flip, which have not appeared in literature.
We construct moduli spaces of representations of quivers over arbitrary schemes and show how moduli spaces of pointed curves of genus zero like the Grothendieck-Knudsen moduli spaces $\overline{M}_{0,n}$ and the Losev-Manin moduli spaces $\overline{L}_n$ can be interpreted as inverse limits of moduli spaces of representations of certain bipartite quivers. We also investigate the case of more general Hassett moduli spaces $\overline{M}_{0,a}$ of weighted pointed stable curves of genus zero.
We run Mori's program for the moduli space of pointed stable rational curves with divisor $K +\sum a_{i}ψ_{i}$. We prove that, without assuming the F-conjecture, the birational model for the pair is the Hassett's moduli space of weighted pointed stable rational curves, without any modification of weight coefficients.
We prove uniruledness of some moduli spaces $\bar{M}_{g,n}$ of stable curves of genus $g$ with $n$ marked points using linear systems on nonsingular projective surfaces containing the general curve of genus $g$. Precisely we show that $\bar{M}_{g,n}$ is uniruled for $g=12$ and $n \leq 5$, $g=13$ and $n \leq 3$, $g=15$ and $n \leq 2$. We then prove that the pointed hyperelliptic locus $H_{g,n}$ is uniruled for $g \geq 2$ and $n \leq 4g+4$. In the last part we show that a nonsingular complete intersection surface does not carry a linear system containing the general curve of genus $g \geq 16$ an…
We prove that the tautological ring of $M_{2,n}^{ct}$, the moduli space of n-pointed genus two curves of compact type, does not have Poincaré duality for any $n \geq 8$. This result is obtained via a more general study of the cohomology groups of $M_{2,n}^{ct}$. We explain how the cohomology can be decomposed into pieces corresponding to different local systems and how the tautological cohomology can be identified within this decomposition. Our results allow the computation of $H^k(M_{2,n}^{ct})$ for any $k$ and $n$ considered both as $S_n$-representation and as mixed Hodge structure/$\ell$-ad…
The moduli space $\bar{M}_A$ of weighted pointed stable curves of genus zero is stratified according to the degeneration types of such curves. We show that the homology groups of the moduli space $\bar{M}_A$ are generated by the strata of $\bar{M}_A$ and give all additive relations between them. We also observe that the Chow groups $A_i \bar{M}_A$ and the homology groups $H_{2i} \bar{M}_A$ are isomorphic. This generalizes Kontsevich-Manin's and Losev-Manin's theorems to arbitrary weight data $A$.
Using the geometry of an almost del Pezzo threefold, we show that the moduli space of genus $g$ one-pointed ineffective spin hyperelliptic curves is rational for every $g\geq 2$.
The moduli space $\bar{M}_S^σ(R)$ parameterizes the isomorphism classes of $S$-pointed stable real curves of genus zero which are invariant under relabeling by the involution $σ$. This moduli space is stratified according to the degeneration types of $σ$-invariant curves. The degeneration types of $σ$-invariant curves are encoded by their dual trees with additional decorations. We construct a combinatorial graph complex generated by the fundamental classes of strata of $\bar{M}_S^σ(R)$. We show that the homology of $\bar{M}_S^σ(R)$ is isomorphic to the homology of our graph complex. We also gi…
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 study the codimension n locus of curves of genus 2 with n distinct marked Weierstrass points inside the moduli space of genus 2, n-pointed curves, for n <= 6. We give a recursive description of the classes of the closure of these loci inside the moduli space of stable curves. For n<= 4, we express these classes using a generating function over stable graphs indexing the boundary strata of moduli spaces of pointed stable curves. Similarly, we express the closure of these classes inside the moduli space of curves of compact type for all n. This is a first step in the study of the structure of…
We show that $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$, the moduli space of smooth curves of genus $g$ together with $n$ marked points, is unirational for $g=12$ and $2 \leq n\leq 4$ and for $g=13$ and $1 \leq n \leq 3$, by constructing suitable dominant families of projective curves in $\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^2$ and $\mathbb{P}^3$ respectively. We also exhibit several new unirationality results for moduli spaces of smooth curves of genus $g$ together with $n$ unordered points, establishing their unirationality for $g=11, n=7$ and $g=12, n =5,6$.
This is the first in a pair of papers developing a framework for the application of logarithmic structures in the study of singular curves of genus $1$. We construct a smooth and proper moduli space dominating the main component of Kontsevich's space of stable genus $1$ maps to projective space. A variation on this theme furnishes a modular interpretation for Vakil and Zinger's famous desingularization of the Kontsevich space of maps in genus $1$. Our methods also lead to smooth and proper moduli spaces of pointed genus $1$ quasimaps to projective space. Finally, we present an application to t…
By the technique of 3-fold Mori theory, we prove that the moduli space whose general point parameterizes a couple of a smooth curve of genus 4 and a halfcanonical divisor with vanishing global section is rational.
By the geometry of the 3-fold quadric we show that the coarse moduli space of genus g ineffective spin hyperelliptic curves with two marked points is a rational variety for every $g \geq 2$.
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.
We prove a general formula for the intersection form of two arbitrary monomials in boundary divisors. Furthermore we present a tree basis of the cohomology of $\overline {M}_{0,n}$. With the help of the intersection form we determine the Gram matrix for this basis and give a formula for its inverse. This enables us to calculate the tensor product of the higher order multiplications arising in quantum cohomology and formal Frobenius manifolds. In the context of quantum cohomology this establishes the explicit Künneth formula.
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 $J_0$.
A new codimension 2 relation among descendent strata in the moduli space of stable, 3-pointed, genus 2 curves is found. The space of pointed admissible double covers is used in the calculation. The resulting differential equations satisfied by the genus 2 gravitational potentials of varieties in Gromov-Witten theory are described. These are analogous to the WDVV-equations in genus 0 and Getzler's equations in genus 1. As an application, genus 2 descendent invariants of the projective plane are determined, including the classical genus 2 Severi degrees.
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.
We study the log canonical models of the moduli space MBar_{0,n} of pointed stable genus zero curves with respect to the standard log canonical divisors K+aD, where D denotes the boundary. In particular we show that, as a formal consequence of a conjecture by Fulton regarding the ample cone of MBar_{0,n}, these log canonical models are equal to certain of Hassett's weighted pointed curve spaces.
The notion of $m/Γ$-pointed stable curves is introduced. It should be viewed as a generalization of the notion of m-pointed stable curves of a given genus, where the labels of the marked points are only determined up to the action of a group of permutations $Γ$. The classical moduli spaces and moduli stacks are generalized to this wider setting. Finally, an explicit construction of the new moduli stack of $m/Γ$-pointed stable curves as a quotient stack is given.
We prove that given any $n$-pointed prestable curve $C$ of genus $g$ with linearly reductive automorphism group ${\rm Aut}(C)$, there exists an ${\rm Aut}(C)$-equivariant miniversal deformation of $C$ over an affine variety $W$. In other words, we prove that the algebraic stack $\mathfrak{M}_{g,n}$ parametrizing $n$-pointed prestable curves of genus $g$ has an étale neighborhood of $[C]$ isomorphic to the quotient stack $[W / {\rm Aut}(C)]$.
We prove that the moduli space ${\Cal M}_{g,n}$ of smooth curves of genus $g$ with $n$ marked points is rational for $g=6$ and $1 \le n \le 8$, and it is unirational for $g=8$ and $1 \le n \le 11$, $g=10$ and $1 \le n \le 3$, $g=12$ and $n = 1$.
We show that a general curve in an explicit class of what we call Du Val pointed curves satisfies the Brill-Noether Theorem for pointed curves. Furthermore, we prove that a generic pencil of Du Val pointed curves is disjoint from all Brill-Noether divisors on the universal curve. This provides explicit examples of smooth pointed curves of arbitrary genus defined over Q which are Brill-Noether general. A similar result is proved for 2-pointed curves as well using explicit curves on elliptic ruled surfaces.
We explicitly compute the diverging factor in the large genus asymptotics of the Weil-Petersson volumes of the moduli spaces of $n$-pointed complex algebraic curves. Modulo a universal multiplicative constant we prove the existence of a complete asymptotic expansion of the Weil-Petersson volumes in the inverse powers of the genus with coefficients that are polynomials in $n$. This is done by analyzing various recursions for the more general intersection numbers of tautological classes, whose large genus asymptotic behavior is also extensively studied.
We explain how to compute top-dimensional intersections of psi-classes on moduli spaces of m-stable curves. On the moduli spaces of Deligne-Mumford stable pointed curves of genus one, these intersection numbers are determined by two recursions, namely the string equation and the dilaton equation. We establish, for each integer m>0, an analogous pair of recursions which determine these intersection numbers on the moduli spaces of m-stable pointed curves of genus one.
In this work we describe the Chen-Ruan cohomology of the moduli stacks of smooth and stable genus 2 pointed curves, and its algebraic counterpart: the stringy Chow ring. In the first half of the paper we compute the additive structure of the Chen-Ruan cohomology ring for the moduli stack of stable pointed genus 2 curves, describing it as a rationally graded vector space. In the second part we give generators for the even Chen--Ruan cohomology ring as an algebra on the ordinary cohomology.
We perform a variation of geometric invariant theory stability analysis for 2nd Hilbert points of bi-log-canonically embedded pointed curves of genus two. As a result, we give a GIT construction of the last three non-trivial log canonical models of the moduli space of pointed genus two curves, and obtain a VGIT presentation of the second flip in its Hassett-Keel program.
We prove arithmetic Riemann-Roch and Hilbert-Samuel type formulae for pointed stable curves. We give applications to volumes of lattices of integral cusps forms for pointed stable curves of genus 0.
This is the first paper in the sequence devoted to derived category of moduli spaces of curves of genus $0$ with marked points. We develop several approaches to describe it equivariantly with respect to the action of the symmetric group permuting marked points. We construct an equivariant full exceptional collection on the Losev-Manin space which categorifies derangements.
We prove a formula of log canonical models for moduli space $\bar{M}_{g,n}$ of pointed stable curves which describes all Hassett's moduli spaces of weighted pointed stable curves in a single equation. This is a generalization of the preceding result for genus zero to all genera.
A weighted pointed curve consists of a nodal curve and a sequence of marked smooth points, each assigned a number between zero and one. A subset of the marked points may coincide if the sum of the corresponding weights is no greater than one. We construct moduli spaces for these objects using methods of the log minimal model program, and describe the induced birational morphisms between moduli spaces as the weights are varied. In the genus zero case, we explain the connection to Geometric Invariant Theory quotients of points in the projective line, and to compactifications of moduli spaces stu…
Let C be a curve of genus g, and let SU(r) be the moduli space of vector bundles of rank r on C, with trivial determinant. A general E in SU(r) defines a theta divisor in the linear system |r Theta|, where Theta is the canonical theta divisor in Pic^{g-1}(C). This defines a rational map SU(r) - - > |r Theta|, which is the map associated to the determinant bundle on SU(r) (the positive generator of Pic(SU(r)). In this paper we prove that in genus 2 this map is generically finite and dominant. The same method, together with some classical work of Morin, shows that in rank 3 and genus 3 the theta…
We prove that the moduli spaces of n-pointed m-stable curves introduced in our previous paper have projective coarse moduli. We use the resulting spaces to run an analogue of the Hassett-Keel log minimal model program for the moduli space of n-pointed stable curves of genus one.
We collect various known results (about plane curves and the moduli space of stable maps) to derive new recursive formulas enumerating low genus plane curves of any degree with various behaviors. Recursive formulas are given for the characteristic numbers of rational plane curves, elliptic plane curves, and elliptic plane curves with fixed complex structure. Recursions are also given for the number of elliptic (and rational) plane curves with various "codimension 1" behavior (cuspidal, tacnodal, triple pointed, etc., as well as the geometric and arithmetic sectional genus of the Severi variety…
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…
Shape matching represents a challenging problem in both information engineering and computer science, exhibiting not only a wide spectrum of multimedia applications, but also a deep relation with conformal geometry. After reviewing the theoretical foundations and the practical issues involved in this fashinating subject, we focus on two state-of-the-art approaches relying respectively on local features (landmark points) and on global properties (conformal parameterizations). Finally, we introduce the Teichmüller space of n-pointed Riemann surfaces of genus g into the realm of multimedia, showi…
Let k be a finite field of odd characteristic. We find a closed formula for the number of k-isomorphism classes of pointed, and non-pointed, hyperelliptic curves of genus g over k, admitting a Koblitz model. These numbers are expressed as a polynomial in the cardinality q of k, with integer coefficients (for pointed curves) and rational coefficients (for non-pointed curves). The coefficients depend on g and the set of divisors of q-1 and q+1. These formulas show that the number of hyperelliptic curves of genus g suitable (in principle) of cryptographic applications is asymptotically (1-e^{-1})…
