Consider the Fulton-MacPherson configuration space of $n$ points on $¶^1$, which is isomorphic to a certain moduli space of stable maps to $¶^1$. We compute the cone of effective ${\mathfrak S}_n$-invariant divisors on this space. This yields a geometric interpretation of known asymptotic formulas for the number of integral points of bounded height on compactifications of $\SL_2$ in the space of binary forms of degree $n\ge 3$.
We compute the cone of effective divisors on any moduli space of semistable sheaves on the plane. The computation hinges on finding a good resolution of a general stable sheaf. This resolution is determined by Bridgeland stability and arises from a well-chosen Beilinson spectral sequence. The existence of a good choice of spectral sequence depends on remarkable number-theoretic properties of the slopes of exceptional bundles.
We shall study the chamber structure of positive cone of the albanese fiber of the moduli spaces of stable objects on an abelian surfaces via the chamber structure of stability conditions.
In this paper, we study the divisor theory of the Simpson moduli space of semistable sheaves of dimension 1 on the projective plane. We prove that these spaces are all Mori dream spaces, and calculate their nef cones. We also study the effective cones of these spaces for most choices of numerical invariants. As a consequence, we work out precisely when two such spaces are isomorphic.
We show that the pseudoeffective cone of divisors $\overline{\text{Eff}}^1(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n})$ for $g\geq 2$ and $n\geq 2$ is not polyhedral by showing that the class of the fibre of the morphism forgetting one point forms an extremal ray of the dual nef cone of curves $\overline{\text{Nef}}_1(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n})$ and the cone at this ray is not polyhedral.
For physicists: We show that the quiver gauge theory derived from a Calabi-Yau cone via an exceptional collection of line bundles on the base has the original cone as a component of its classical moduli space. For mathematicians: We use data from the derived category of sheaves on a Fano surface to construct a quiver, and show that its moduli space of representations has a component which is isomorphic to the anticanonical cone over the surface.
Fix a Chern character of a stable sheaf on the plane. Assume either the rank is at most 6 or the rank and first Chern class are coprime and the discriminant is sufficiently large. We use recent results of Bayer and Macri on Bridgeland stability to compute the ample cone of the moduli space of Gieseker semistable sheaves with the given Chern character. We recover earlier results, such as those by Stromme and Yoshioka, as special cases.
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.
Let $G$ be a real reductive Lie group, and $H^{\mathbb{C}}$ the complexification of its maximal compact subgroup $H\subset G$. We consider classes of semistable $G$-Higgs bundles over a Riemann surface $X$ of genus $g\geq2$ whose underlying $H^{\mathbb{C}}$-principal bundle is unstable. This allows us to find obstructions to a deformation retract from the moduli space of $G$-Higgs bundles over $X$ to the moduli space of $H^{\mathbb{C}}$-bundles over $X$, in contrast with the situation when $g=1$, and to show reducibility of the nilpotent cone of the moduli space of $G$-Higgs bundles, for $G$ c…
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 problem of finding the limit at infinity (corresponding to the downward Morse flow) of a Higgs bundle in the nilpotent cone under the natural $\mathbb{C}^*$-action on the moduli space. For general rank we provide an answer for Higgs bundles with regular nilpotent Higgs field, while in rank three we give the complete answer. Our results show that the limit can be described in terms of data defined by the Higgs field, via a filtration of the underlying vector bundle.
Let $ξ$ be a stable Chern character on $\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^1$, and let $M(ξ)$ be the moduli space of Gieseker semistable sheaves on $\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^1$ with Chern character $ξ$. In this paper, we provide an approach to computing the effective cone of $M(ξ)$ after showing that it is a Mori dream space for all $ξ$. We find Brill-Noether divisors spanning extremal rays of the effective cone using resolutions of the general elements of $M(ξ)$ which are found using the machinery of exceptional bundles. We use this approach to provide many examples of extremal rays in thes…
We construct a compactification of the moduli space of Drinfeld modules of rank $r$ and level $N$ as a moduli space of $A$-reciprocal maps. This is closely related to the Satake compactification, but not exactly the same. The construction involves some technical assumptions on $N$ that are satisfied for a cofinal set of ideals $N$. In the special case $A={\mathbb F}_q[t]$ and $N=(t^n)$ we obtain a presentation for the graded ideal of Drinfeld cusp forms of level $N$ and all weights and can deduce a dimension formula for the space of cusp forms of any weight. We expect the same results in gener…
We use wall-crossing with respect to Bridgeland stability conditions to systematically study the birational geometry of a moduli space M of stable sheaves on a K3 surface X: 1. We describe the nef cone, the movable cone, and the effective cone of M in terms of the Mukai lattice of X. 2. We establish a long-standing conjecture that predicts the existence of a birational Lagrangian fibration on M whenever M admits an integral divisor class D of square zero (with respect to the Beauville-Bogomolov form). These results are proved using a natural map from the space of Bridgeland stability condition…
A curve on a projective variety is called movable if it belongs to an algebraic family of curves covering the variety. We consider when the cone of movable curves can be characterized without existence statements of covering families by studying the complete intersection cone on a family of blow-ups of complex projective space, including the moduli space of stable six-pointed rational curves, $\bar{M}_{0,6}$, and the permutohedral or Losev-Manin moduli space of four-pointed rational curves. Our main result is that the movable and complete intersection cones coincide for the toric members of th…
Abramovich, Corti and Vistoli have studied modular compactifications of stacks of curves equipped with abelian level structures arising as substacks of the stack of twisted stable maps into the classifying stack of a finite group, provided the order of the group is invertible on the base scheme. Recently Abramovich, Olsson and Vistoli extended the notion of twisted stable maps to allow arbitrary base schemes, where the target is a tame stack, not necessarily Deligne-Mumford. We use this to extend the results of Abramovich, Corti and Vistoli to the case of elliptic curves with level structures …
Let (X,H) be a polarized, smooth, complex projective surface, and let v be a Chern character on X with positive rank and sufficiently large discriminant. In this paper, we compute the Gieseker wall for v in a slice of the stability manifold of X. We construct explicit curves parameterizing non-isomorphic Gieseker stable sheaves that become S-equivalent along the wall. As a corollary, we conclude that if there are no strictly semistable sheaves of character v, the Bayer-Macri divisor associated to the wall is a boundary nef divisor on the moduli space of sheaves M_H(v). We recover previous resu…
We investigate the possible homological classes of rational curves on the moduli space $X_n=\bar{\mathcal{M}_{0,n}}$ of rational nodal curves with $n$ marked points. In the case of $X_5$ and $X_6$ the relevant homology classes belong to certain polyhedral cones which we describe explicitly. Not all homology classes in the cone correspond to rational curves, but all classes sufficiently far from the walls of the cone do. The proof for $X_5$ is explicit, the proof for $X_6$ was carried out using computers.
This note describes moduli spaces of complexes in the derived category of a Veronese double cone $Y$. Focusing on objects with the same class $κ_1$ as ideal sheaves of lines, we describe the moduli space of Gieseker stable sheaves and show that it has two components. Then, we study the moduli space of stable complexes in the Kuznetsov component of $Y$ of the same class, which also has two components. One parametrizes ideal sheaves of lines and it appears in both moduli spaces. The other components are not directly related by a wall-crossing: we show this by describing an intermediate moduli sp…
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 study the birational geometry of the moduli space of complete $n$-quadrics $X$. We exhibit generators for Eff$(X)$ and Nef$(X)$, the cone of effective divisors and the cone of nef divisors, respectively. As a corollary X is a Mori Dream space. Furthermore, we run the MMP on $X$ and find a moduli interpretation for the models induced by the generators of the nef cone. In the case of complete quadric surfaces, we describe all the birational models of $X$ induced by the movable cone and find a moduli interpretation for some of these models.
We discuss selected topics on the topology of moduli spaces of curves and maps, emphasizing their relation with Gromov--Witten theory and integrable systems.
We construct the moduli space, $M_d$, of degree $d$ rational maps on $\mathbb{P}^1$ in terms of invariants of binary forms. We apply this construction to give explicit invariants and equations for $M_3$. Using classical invariant theory, we give solutions to the following problems: (1) explicitly construct, from a moduli point $P\in M_d(k)$, a rational map $ϕ$ with the given moduli; (2) find a model for $ϕ$ over the field of definition (i.e. explicit descent). We work out the method in detail for the cases $d=2,3$.
We present a localization proof of the fact that the cohomology of the moduli spaces of genus zero stable maps to projective spaces is entirely tautological. In addition, we obtain a description of a Bialynicki-Birula stratification in the context of Gathmann's moduli spaces of maps with prescribed contact order to a fixed hyperplane.
It is known that the main component of the Kontsevich's moduli space of elliptic stable maps is singular. There are two different desingularizations. One is Vakil-Zinger's desingularization and the other is the moduli space of logarithmic stable maps. When the degree is less then or equal to 3 and the target is $\mathbb{P}^{n}$, we show that the moduli space of logarithmic stable maps can be obtained by blowing up Vakil-Zinger's desingularization.
By using Oprea's Bialynicki-Birula decomposition for the stack of genus zero stable maps to flag manifolds. We calculate the Poincaré polynomial of the moduli space in degree one and degree two.
This paper provides a GIT construction of the Moduli Space of Stable Maps as a GIT quotient of the Graph Space by SL(2,C). As a corollary, we get a birational map from the 0-pointed Moduli Space to a projective variety.
We study the birational geometry of moduli spaces of semistable sheaves on the projective plane via Bridgeland stability conditions. We show that the entire MMP of their moduli spaces can be run via wall-crossing. Via a description of the walls, we give a numerical description of their movable cones, along with its chamber decomposition corresponding to minimal models. As an application, we show that for primitive vectors, all birational models corresponding to open chambers in the movable cone are smooth and irreducible.
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.
The results of this paper have been subsumed by the paper "A geometric invariant theory construction of spaces of stable maps," Elizabeth Baldwin and David Swinarski, arXiv:0706.1381
We analyze the relationship between two compactifications of the moduli space of maps from curves to a Grassmannian: the Kontsevich moduli space of stable maps and the Marian--Oprea--Pandharipande moduli space of stable quotients. We construct a moduli space which dominates both the moduli space of stable maps to a Grassmannian and the moduli space of stable quotients, and equip our moduli space with a virtual fundamental class. We relate the virtual fundamental classes of all three moduli spaces using the virtual push-forward formula. This gives a new proof of a theorem of Marian-Oprea-Pandha…
We prove the connectedness of the moduli space of maps (of fixed genus and homology class) to the homogeneous space G/P by degeneration via the maximal torus action. In the genus 0 case, the irreducibility of the moduli of maps is a direct consequence of connectedness. An analysis of a related Bialynicki-Birula stratification of the map space yields a rationality result: the (coarse) moduli space of genus 0 maps to G/P is a rational variety. The rationality argument depends essentially upon rationality results for quotients of SL2 representations proven by Katsylo and Bogomolov.
We present a new compactification $M(d,n)$ of the moduli space of self-maps of $\mathbb{CP}^1$ of degree $d$ with $n$ markings. It is constructed via GIT from the stable maps moduli space $\ ar M_{0,n}(\mathbb{CP}^1 \times \mathbb{CP}^1, (1,d))$. We show that it is the coarse moduli space of a smooth Deligne-Mumford stack and we compute its rational Picard group. Using the recursive boundary structure inherited from the stable maps space, we give an explicit algorithm for computing top-intersection numbers of divisors on $M(d,n)$. We also study the $m$-fold iteration map $M(d,n) \dashrightarro…
In this paper we compute the multiple cover Gromov-Witten integrals (analog of the Aspinwall-Morrison formula) for the unramified compactification of the moduli space of stable maps to an embedded $\PO$ in a Calabi-Yau threefold $X$ with the normal bundle $\mathcal{O}_{\PO}(-1) \bigoplus \mathcal{O}_{\PO}(-1)$.
Let f : X --> Y be a projective morphism of smooth algebraic varieties over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero with dim f = 1. Let E be a vector bundle of rank r on X. In this paper, we would like to show that if X_y is smooth and E_y is semistable for some point y of Y, then f_* (2r c_2(E) - (r-1) c_1(E)^2) is weakly positive at y. We apply this result to obtain the following description of the cone of weakly positive $\QQ$-Cartier divisors on the moduli space of stable curves. Let M_g (resp. M_g^0) be the moduli space of stable (resp. smooth) curves of genus g >= 2. Let h b…
We construct a moduli space of stable maps with fields associated to a triple $(X,E,s)$ of a projective variety (or a DM stack with projective moduli space) a vector bundle and a section. We show the class coincides up to a sign with the virtual fundamental class on the moduli space of stable maps to $Z=Z(s)\subset X$. We show that this gives a generalization of the Quantum Lefschetz hyperplane principle. This generalizes similar comparison results of Chang--Li, Kim--Oh and Chang--Li and presents a different approach from Chen--Janda--Webb.
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.
In a previous paper, the author and David Swinarski constructed the moduli spaces of stable maps, \bar M_g,n(P^r,d), via geometric invariant theory (GIT). That paper required the base field to be the complex numbers, a restriction which this paper removes: here the coarse moduli spaces of stable maps are constructed via GIT over a more general base.
We construct moduli spaces of rational covers of an arbitrary smooth tropical curve in R^r as tropical varieties. They are contained in the balanced fan parametrizing tropical stable maps of the appropriate degree to R^r. The weights of the top-dimensional polyhedra are given in terms of certain lattice indices and local Hurwitz numbers.
We show that the moduli space of genus zero stable maps is a real projective variety if the target space is a smooth convex real projective variety. We show that evaluation maps, forgetful maps are real morphisms. We analyze the real part of the moduli space.
Let $X$ be a projective normal toric variety and $T_0$ a rank one subtorus of the defining torus of $X$. We show that the normalization of the Chow quotient $X//T_0$, in the sense of Kapranov-Sturmfels-Zelevinsky, coarsely represents the moduli space of stable log maps to $X$ with discrete data given by $T_0\subset X$.
A Finsler metric, whose holomorphic curvature is bounded from above by a negative constant, is constructed on the moduli stack of canonically polarized manifolds including singularities. Demailly's version of Ahlfors' lemma yields hyperbolicity of the moduli stack.
We compare the Kontsevich moduli space of genus 0 stable maps to projective space with the quasi-map space when $d=3$. More precisely, we prove that when $d=3$, the obvious birational map from the quasi-map space to the moduli space of stable maps is the composition of three blow-ups followed by two blow-downs. Furthermore, we identify the blow-up/down centers explicitly in terms of the moduli spaces for lower degrees. Using this, we calculate the Betti numbers, the integral Picard group, and the rational cohomology ring. The degree two case is worked out as a warm-up.
This informal note provides some elementary examples to motivate the local structural results of [1] on the moduli space of genus one stable maps to projective space. The hope is that these examples will be helpful for graduate students to learn this important subject.
We use the theory of twisted stable maps to Deligne-Mumford stacks to construct compactifications of the moduli space of pairs $(X \to C, S + F)$ where $X \to C$ is a fibered surface, $S$ is a sum of sections, $F$ is a sum of marked fibers, and $(X, S + F)$ is a stable pair in the sense of the minimal model program. This generalizes the work of Abramovich-Vistoli, who compactified the moduli space of fibered surfaces without marked fibers. Furthermore, we compare our compactification to Alexeev's space of stable maps and the KSBA compactification of stable pairs. As an application, we describe…
This work is motivated by two central questions in the birational geometry of moduli spaces of curves -- Fulton's conjecture and the effective cone of $\bar M_g$. We study the algebro-geometric aspect of Teichmuller curves parameterizing square-tiled surfaces with two applications: (a) there exist infinitely many rigid curves on the moduli space of hyperelliptic curves, they span the same extremal ray of the cone of moving curves and their union is Zariski dense, hence they yield infinitely many rigid curves with the same properties on the moduli space of stable n-pointed rational curves for e…
In this paper, we present explicit toric construction of moduli space of quasi maps from $\mathbb{P}^1$ with two marked points to $\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^1$, which was first proposed by Jinzenji and prove that it is a compact orbifold. We also determine its Chow ring and compute its Poincaré polynomial for some lower degree cases.
The moduli space of stable maps with divisible ramification uses $r$-th roots of a canonical ramification section to parametrise stable maps whose ramification orders are divisible by a fixed integer $r$. In this article, a virtual fundamental class is constructed while letting domain curves have a positive genus; hence removing the restriction of the domain curves being genus zero. We apply the techniques of virtual localisation and obtain the $r$-ELSV formula as an intersection of the virtual class with a pullback via the branch morphism.
