A bracket is a function that assigns a number to each monomial in variables τ_0, τ_1, ... We show that any bracket satisfying the string and the dilaton relations gives rise to a power series lying in the algebra A generated by the series \sum n^{n-1} q^n/n! and \sum n^n q^n /n! .
As a consequence, various series from A appear in the intersection theory of moduli spaces of curves.
A connection between the counting of ramified coverings of the sphere and the intersection theory on moduli spaces allows us to prove that some natural generating functions enumerating the ramified coverings lie, yet again, in A. As an application, one can find the asymptotic of the number of such coverings as the number of sheets tends to infinity.
We believe that the leading terms of the asymptotics like that correspond to observables in 2-dimensional gravity.
Let A be the algebra generated by the power series \sum n^{n-1} q^n/n! and \sum n^n q^n /n! . We prove that many natural generating functions lie in this algebra: those appearing in graph enumeration problems, in the intersection theory of moduli spaces M_{g,n} and in the enumeration of ramified coverings of the sphere. We argue that ramified coverings of the sphere with a large number of sheets provide a model of 2-dimensional gravity. Our results allow us to compute the asymptotic of the number of coverings as the number of sheets goes to infinity. The leading terms of such asymptotics are t…
Enumerating ramified coverings of the sphere with fixed ramification types is a well-known problem first considered by A. Hurwitz. Up to now, explicit solutions have been obtained only for some families of ramified coverings, for instant, those realized by polynomials in one complex variable. In this paper we obtain an explicit answer for a large new family of coverings, namely, the coverings realized by simple almost polynomials, defined below. Unlike most other results in the field, our formula is obtained by elementary methods.
We introduce the notion of factorized ramified structure on a generic ramified irregular singular connection on a smooth projective curve. By using the deformation theory of connections with factorized ramified structure, we construct a canonical 2-form on the moduli space of ramified connections. Since the factorized ramified structure provides a duality on the tangent space of the moduli space, the 2-form becomes nondegenerate. We prove that the 2-form on the moduli space of ramified connections is d-closed via constructing an unfolding of the moduli space. Based on the Stokes data, we intro…
We give an algebraic construction of the moduli space of irregular singular connections of generic ramified type on a smooth projective curve. We prove that the moduli space is smooth and give its dimension. Under the assumption that the exponent of ramified type is generic, we give an algebraic symplectic form on the moduli space.
We prove that the moduli space of Calabi-Yau 3-folds coming from eight planes of $P^3$ in general positions is not modular. In fact we show the stronger statement that the Zariski closure of the monodromy group is actually the whole $Sp(20,R)$. We construct an interesting submoduli, which we call \emph{hyperelliptic locus}, over which the weight 3 $Q$-Hodge structure is the third wedge product of the weight 1 $Q$-Hodge structure on the corresponding hyperelliptic curve. The non-extendibility of the hyperelliptic locus inside the moduli space of a genuine Shimura subvariety is proved.
Local models are schemes which are intended to model the étale-local structure of p-adic integral models of Shimura varieties. Pappas and Zhu have recently given a general group-theoretic construction of flat local models with parahoric level structure for any tamely ramified group, but it remains an interesting problem to characterize the local models, when possible, in terms of an explicit moduli problem. In the setting of local models for ramified, quasi-split GU_n, work towards an explicit moduli description was initiated in the general framework of Rapoport and Zink's book and was subsequ…
Let $F|\mathbb{Q}_2$ be a finite extension. In this paper, we construct an RZ-space $\mathcal{N}_E$ for split $\mathrm{GU}(1,1)$ over a ramified quadratic extension $E|F$. For this, we first introduce the naive moduli problem $\mathcal{N}_E^{\mathrm{naive}}$ and then define $\mathcal{N}_E \subseteq \mathcal{N}_E^{\mathrm{naive}}$ as a canonical closed formal subscheme, using the so-called straightening condition. We establish an isomorphism between $\mathcal{N}_E$ and the Drinfeld moduli problem, proving the $2$-adic analogue of a theorem of Kudla and Rapoport. The formulation of the straighte…
Local models are schemes, defined in terms of linear-algebraic moduli problems, which give étale-local neighborhoods of integral models of certain p-adic PEL Shimura varieties defined by Rapoport and Zink. In the case of a unitary similitude group whose localization at Q_p is ramified, quasi-split GU_n, Pappas has observed that the original local models are typically not flat, and he and Rapoport have introduced new conditions to the original moduli problem which they conjecture to yield a flat scheme. In a previous paper we proved that their new local models are topologically flat when n is o…
Local models are certain schemes, defined in terms of linear-algebraic moduli problems, which give étale-local neighborhoods of integral models of certain p-adic PEL Shimura varieties defined by Rapoport and Zink. When the group defining the Shimura variety ramifies at p, the local models (and hence the Shimura models) as originally defined can fail to be flat, and it becomes desirable to modify their definition so as to obtain a flat scheme. In the case of unitary similitude groups whose localizations at Q_p are ramified, quasi-split GU_n, Pappas and Rapoport have added new conditions, the so…
We prove a canonical identifications of the spaces of generalized theta functions on the moduli spaces of anti-invariant vector bundles in the ramified case and the conformal blocks associated to twisted Kac-Moody affine algebras.
We are interested in studying the variation of the Hitchin fibration in moduli spaces of parabolic Higgs bundles, under the action of a ramified covering. Given a degree two map $π$ : Y $\rightarrow$ X between compact Riemann surfaces, we may pull back a Higgs bundle from X to Y , the lifted Higgs bundle tends to have many apparent singularities, then we perform a suitable birational transformation in order to eliminate them. This correspondence preserves the Hitchin fibrations and then its restriction to a general fiber gives a map between Abelian varieties. The aim of this paper is to descri…
We study Shimura (special) subvarieties in the moduli space $A_{p,D}$ of complex abelian varieties of dimension $p$ and polarization type $D$. These subvarieties arise from families of covers compatible with a fixed group action on the base curve such that the quotient of the base curve by the group is isomorphic to $\mathbb{P}^1$. We give a criterion for the image of these families under the Prym map to be a special subvariety and, using computer algebra, obtain 210 Shimura subvarieties contained in the Prym locus.
In this paper we prove that the Prym map, from the space of double coverings of a curve of genus g with r branch points to the moduli space of abelian varieties, is generically injective if r>6 and g>1, r=6 and g>2, r=4 and g>4, r=2 and g>5. We also show that a very generic Prym variety of dimension at least 4 is not isogenous to a Jacobian.
Branched covers of the complex projective line ramified over $0,1$ and $\infty$ (Grothendieck's {\em dessins d'enfant}) of fixed genus and degree are effectively enumerated. More precisely, branched covers of a given ramification profile over $\infty$ and given numbers of preimages of $0$ and $1$ are considered. The generating function for the numbers of such covers is shown to satisfy a PDE that determines it uniquely modulo a simple initial condition. Moreover, this generating function satisfies an infinite system of PDE's called the KP (Kadomtsev-Petviashvili) hierarchy. A specification of …
This article is an extended version of preprint math.AG/9902104. We find an explicit formula for the number of topologically different ramified coverings of a sphere by a genus g surface with only one complicated branching point in terms of Hodge integrals over the moduli space of genus g curves with marked points.
We consider the moduli space, in the sense of Kisin, of finite flat models of a 2-dimensional representation with values in a finite field of the absolute Galois group of a totally ramified extension of $mathbb{Q}_p$. We determine the connected components of this space and describe its irreducible components. These results prove a modified version of a conjecture of Kisin.
In this paper we construct Shimura subvarieties of dimension bigger than one of the moduli space of polarised abelian varieties of a given dimension, which are generically contained in the Pym loci of (ramified) double covers. The idea is to adapt the techniques already used to construct Shimura curves in the Prym loci to the higher dimensional case, namely to use families of Galois covers of the projective line. The case of abelian covers is treated in detail, since in this case it is possible to make explicit computations that allow to verify a sufficient condition for such a family to yield…
We study moduli spaces of maximal orders in a ramified division algebra over the function field of a smooth projective surface. As in the case of moduli of stable commutative surfaces, we show that there is a Kollár-type condition giving a better moduli problem with the same geometric points: the stack of blt Azumaya algebras. One virtue of this refined moduli problem is that it admits a compactification with a virtual fundamental class.
There is a natural sequence of CY manifolds that are double covers of the projective g dimensional spaces ramified over 2g+2 hyperplanes. We observe that some of them are obtained as quotient of the action of the semi-direct product of g-1 copies of cyclic Z/2Z groups with the symmetric g group on the product of g-copies of hyper-elliptic curves of genus g. The quotient is a double cover of the projective g space ramified over 2g+2 hyperplanes. This construction generalizes the construction of a Kummer surface. The Kodaira-Spencer classes on the Jacobian are invariant under the action of the g…
We revisit a statement of Birch that the field of moduli for a marked three-point ramified cover is a field of definition. Classical criteria due to Dèbes and Emsalem can be used to prove this statement in the presence of a smooth point, and in fact these results imply more generally that a marked curve descends to its field of moduli. We give a constructive version of their results, based on an algebraic version of the notion of branches of a morphism and allowing us to extend the aforementioned results to the wildly ramified case. Moreover, we give explicit counterexamples for singular curve…
The goal of this paper is the study of simple rank 2 parabolic vector bundles over a $2$-punctured elliptic curve $C$. We show that the moduli space of these bundles is a non-separated gluing of two charts isomorphic to $\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^1$. We also showcase a special curve $Γ$ isomorphic to $C$ embedded in this space, and this way we prove a Torelli theorem. This moduli space is related to the moduli space of semistable parabolic bundles over $\mathbb{P}^1$ via a modular map which turns out to be the 2:1 cover ramified in $Γ$. We recover the geometry of del Pezzo surfaces of deg…
In the relative trace formula approach to the arithmetic Gan-Gross-Prasad conjecture, we formulate a local conjecture (arithmetic transfer) in the case of an exotic smooth formal moduli space of p-divisible groups, associated to a unitary group relative to a ramified quadratic extension of a p-adic field. We prove our conjecture in the case of a unitary group in three variables.
For any finite abelian group G, we study the moduli space of abelian $G$-covers of elliptic curves, in particular identifying the irreducible components of the moduli space. We prove that, in the totally ramified case, the moduli space has trivial rational Picard group, and it is birational to the moduli space M_{1,n}, where n is the number of branch points. In the particular case of moduli of bielliptic curves, we also prove that the boundary divisors are a basis of the rational Picard group of the admissible covers compactification of the moduli space. Our methods are entirely algebro-geomet…
Inside the moduli space of curves of genus 2 with 2 marked points we consider the loci of curves admitting a map to P^1 of degree d totally ramified over the two marked points, for d>= 2. Such loci have codimension two. We compute the class of their compactifications in the moduli space of stable curves. Several results will be deduced from this computation.
We introduce dessins d'enfants from the various existing points of view: As topological covering spaces, as surfaces with triangulations, and as algebraic curves with functions ramified over three points. We prove Belyi's theorem that such curves are defined over number fields, and define the action of the absolute Galois group Gal($\overline Q/Q$) on dessins d'enfants. We prove that several kinds of dessins d'enfants are defined over their field of moduli: regular dessins, dessins with no nontrivial automorphisms and dessins with one face. In the last part, we give two examples of regular des…
Montonen-Olive duality implies that the categories of A-branes on the moduli spaces of Higgs bundles on a Riemann surface C for a pair of Langlands-dual groups are equivalent. We reformulate this as a statement about categories of B-branes on the quantized moduli spaces of flat connections for these groups. We show that it implies the statement of the Quantum Geometric Langlands duality with a purely imaginary ``quantum parameter'' which is proportional to the inverse of the Planck constant of the gauge theory. The ramified version of the story is also considered.
In this paper the moduli space of Higgs pairs over a fixed smooth projective curve with extra formal data is defined and it is endowed with a scheme structure. We introduce a relative version of the Krichever map using a fibration of Sato Grassmannians and show that this map is injective. This fact and the characterization of the points of the image of the Krichever map allow us to prove that this moduli space is a closed subscheme of the product of the moduli of vector bundles (with formal extra data) and a formal anologue of the Hitchin base. This characterization also provide us the method …
We prove that the moduli space of double covers ramified at two points $\mathcal{R}_{g,2}$ is uniruled for $3\leq g\leq 6$ and of general type for $g\geq 16$. Furthermore, we consider Prym-canonical divisorial strata in the moduli space $\overline{\mathcal{C}^n\mathcal{R}}_g$ parametrizing $n$-pointed Prym curves, and we compute their classes in $\mathrm{Pic}_\mathbb{Q}(\overline{\mathcal{C}^n\mathcal{R}}_g)$.
Hurwitz numbers are a weighted count of degree d ramified covers of curves with specified ramification profiles at marked points on the codomain curve. Isomorphism classes of these covers can be included as a dense open set in a moduli space, called a Hurwitz space. The Hurwitz space has a forgetful morphism to the moduli space of marked, stable curves, and the degree of this morphism encodes the Hurwitz numbers. Mikhalkin has constructed a moduli space of tropical marked, stable curves, and this space is a tropical variety. In this paper, I construct a tropical analogue of the Hurwitz space i…
In this paper we consider the Prym map for double coverings of curves of genus $g$ ramified at $r>0$ points. That is, the map associating to a double ramified covering its Prym variety. The generic Torelli theorem states that the Prym map is generically injective as soon as the dimension of the space of coverings is less or equal to the dimension of the space of polarized abelian varieties. We prove the generic injectivity of the Prym map in the cases of double coverings of curves with: (a) $g=2$, $r=6$, and (b) $g= 5$, $r=2$. In the first case the proof is constructive and can be extended to …
Let $G$ be an algebraic group and $Γ$ a finite subgroup of automorphisms of $G$. Fix also a possibly ramified $Γ$-covering $\widetilde{X} \to X$. In this setting one may define the notion of $(Γ,G)$-bundles over $\widetilde{X}$ and, in this paper, we give a description of these objects in terms of $\mathcal{H}$-bundles on $X$, for an appropriate group $\mathcal{H}$ over $X$ which depends on the local type of the $(Γ,G)$-bundles we intend to parametrize. This extends, and along the way clarifies, an earlier work of Balaji and Seshadri.
A fine moduli space is constructed, for cyclic-by-$\mathsf{p}$ covers of an affine curve over an algebraically closed field $k$ of characteristic $\mathsf{p}>0$. An intersection of finitely many fine moduli spaces for cyclic-by-$\mathsf{p}$ covers of affine curves gives a moduli space for $\mathsf{p}'$-by-$\mathsf{p}$ covers of an affine curve. A local moduli space is also constructed, for cyclic-by-$\mathsf{p}$ covers of $Spec(k((x)))$, which is the same as the global moduli space for cyclic-by-$\mathsf{p}$ covers of $\mathbb{P}^1-\{0\}$ tamely ramified over $\infty$ with the same Galois grou…
We offer a groupoid-theoretic approach to computing invariants. We illustrate this approach by describing the Gel'fand-MacPherson correspondence and the Gale transform as well as giving Zariski-local descriptions of the moduli space of ordered points in P^1. We give an explicit description of the moduli space M_0(P^1,2) over Spec Z. In characteristic 2, there is a singularity at the totally ramified cover which is isomorphic to the affine cone over the Veronese embedding P^1 --> P^4.
In this paper we introduce a new invariant for the action of a finite group $G$ on a compact complex curve of genus $g$. With the aid of this invariant we achieve the classification of the components of the moduli space of curves with an effective action by the dihedral group $D_n$. This invariant has been used in the meanwhile by the authors in order to extend the genus stabilization result of Livingston and Dunfield and Thurston to the ramified case. This new version contains an appendix clarifying the correspondence between the above components and the image loci in the moduli space M_g (cl…
We define and count lattice points in the moduli space of stable genus g curves with n labeled points. This extends a construction of the second author for the uncompactified moduli space. The enumeration produces polynomials with top degree coefficients tautological intersection numbers on the compactified moduli space and constant term the orbifold Euler characteristic of the compactified moduli space. We also prove a recursive formula which can be used to effectively calculate these polynomials.
We compute the Brauer group of the moduli stack of elliptic curves over the integers, localizations of the integers, finite fields of odd characteristic, and algebraically closed fields of characteristic not $2$. The methods involved include the use of the parameter space of Legendre curves and the moduli stack of curves with full (naive) level $2$ structure, the study of the descent spectral sequence in étale cohomology and the Leray spectral sequence in fppf cohomology, the computation of the group cohomology of $S_3$ in a certain integral representation, the classification of cubic Galois e…
We introduce the notion of a logarithmic stable map from a minimal log prestable curve to a log twisted semi-stable variety of form $xy=0$. We study the compactification of the moduli spaces of such maps and provide a perfect obstruction theory, applicable to the moduli spaces of (un)ramified stable maps and stable relative maps. As an application, we obtain a modular desingularization of the main component of Kontsevich's moduli space of elliptic stable maps to a projective space.
In this paper we find an explicit formula for the number of topologically different ramified coverings $C\to\CP^1$ (C is a compact Riemann surface of genus g) with only one complicated branching point in terms of Hodge integrals over the moduli space of genus g curves with marked points.
We analyse the moduli space and the structure of noncommutative 3-spheres. We develop the notion of central quadratic form for quadratic algebras, and prove a general algebraic result which considerably refines the classical homomorphism from a quadratic algebra to a cross-product algebra associated to the characteristic variety and lands in a richer cross-product. It allows to control the $C^\ast$-norm on involutive quadratic algebras and to construct the differential calculus in the desired generality. The moduli space of noncommutative 3-spheres is identified with equivalence classes of pai…
This paper provides an introduction to the mathematical notion of \emph{quantum curves}. We start with a concrete example arising from a graph enumeration problem. We then develop a theory of quantum curves associated with Hitchin spectral curves. A conjecture of Gaiotto, which predicts a new construction of opers from a Hitchin spectral curve, is explained. We give a step-by-step detailed description of the proof of the conjecture for the case of rank $2$ Higgs bundles. Finally, we identify the two concepts of \textit{quantum curve} arising from the topological recursion formalism with the li…
We study constructible invariants of the moduli space $\overline{\mathcal{M}}(\boldsymbol{x})$ of stable maps from genus zero curves to $\mathbb{P}^1$, relative to $0$ and $\infty$, with ramification profiles specified by ${\boldsymbol{x}\in \mathbb{Z}^n}$. These spaces are central to the enumerative geometry of $\mathbb{P}^1$, and provide a large family of birational models of the Deligne--Mumford--Knudsen moduli space $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$. For the sequence of vectors $\boldsymbol{x}$ corresponding to maps which are maximally ramified over $0$ and unramified over $\infty$, we prove …
We use algebraic methods to compute the simple Hurwitz numbers for arbitrary source and target Riemann surfaces. For an elliptic curve target, we reproduce the results previously obtained by string theorists. Motivated by the Gromov-Witten potentials, we find a general generating function for the simple Hurwitz numbers in terms of the representation theory of the symmetric group S_n. We also find a generating function for Hodge integrals on the moduli space M_{g,2} of Riemann surfaces with two marked points, similar to that found by Faber and Pandharipande for the case of one marked point.
Hassett constructed a class of modular compactifications of the moduli space of pointed curves by adding weights to the marked points. This leads to a natural wall and chamber decomposition of the domain of admissible weights where the moduli space and universal family remain constant inside a chamber, and may change upon crossing a wall. The goal of this paper is to count the number of chambers in this decomposition. We relate these chambers to a class of boolean functions known as linear threshold functions (LTFs), and discover a subclass of LTFs which are in bijection with the chambers. Usi…
Let $O_F$ be the ring of integers of a totally real field $F$ of degree $g$. We study the reduction of the moduli space of separably polarized abelian $O_F$-varieties of dimension $g$ modulo $p$ for a fixed prime $p$. The invariants and related conditions for the objects in the moduli space are discussed. We construct a scheme-theoretic stratification by $a$-numbers on the Rapoport locus and study the relation with the slope stratification. In particular, we recover the main results of Goren and Oort [GO, J. Alg. Geom. 2000] on the stratifications when $p$ is unramified in $O_F$. We also prove…
The second author and Norbury initiated the enumeration of lattice points in the Deligne-Mumford compactifications of moduli spaces of curves. They showed that the enumeration may be expressed in terms of polynomials, whose top and bottom degree coefficients store psi-class intersection numbers and orbifold Euler characteristics of $\overline{\mathcal M}_{g,n}$, respectively. Furthermore, they ask whether the enumeration is governed by the topological recursion and whether the intermediate coefficients also store algebro-geometric information. In this paper, we prove that the enumeration does …
Let $ϕ:S^2 \to S^2$ be an orientation-preserving branched covering whose post-critical set has finite cardinality $n$. If $ϕ$ has a fully ramified periodic point $p_{\infty}$ and satisfies certain additional conditions, then, by work of Koch, $ϕ$ induces a meromorphic self-map $R_ϕ$ on the moduli space $\mathcal{M}_{0,n}$; $R_ϕ$ descends from Thurston's pullback map on Teichmüller space. Here, we relate the dynamics of $R_ϕ$ on $\mathcal{M}_{0,n}$ to the dynamics of $ϕ$ on $S^2$. Let $\ell$ be the length of the periodic cycle in which the fully ramified point $p_{\infty}$ lies; we show that $R…
In Part I, we extend our analysis in [arXiv:0807.1107], and show that a mathematically conjectured geometric Langlands duality for complex surfaces in [1], and its generalizations -- which relate some cohomology of the moduli space of certain ("ramified") G-instantons to the integrable representations of the Langlands dual of certain affine (sub) G-algebras, where G is any compact Lie group -- can be derived, purely physically, from the principle that the spacetime BPS spectra of string-dual M-theory compactifications ought to be equivalent. In Part II, to the setup in Part I, we introduce Ome…
Light-cone string diagrams have been used to reproduce the orbifold Euler characteristic of moduli spaces of punctured Riemann surfaces at low genus and with few punctures. Nakamura studied the meromorphic differential introduced by Giddings and Wolpert to characterise light-cone diagrams and introduced a class of graphs related to this differential. These Nakamura graphs were used to parametrise the cells in a light-cone cell decomposition of moduli space. We develop links between Nakamura graphs and realisations of the worldsheet as branched covers. This leads to a development of the combina…
