A central question in invariant theory is that of determining the relations among invariants. Geometric invariant theory quotients come with a natural ample line bundle, and hence often a natural projective embedding. This question translates to determining the equations of the moduli space under this embedding. This note deals with one of the most classical quotients, the space of ordered points on the projective line. We show that under any linearization, this quotient is cut out (scheme-theoretically) by a particularly simple set of quadric relations, with the single exception of the Segre cubic threefold (the space of six points with equal weight). Unlike many facts in geometric invariant theory, these results (at least for the stable locus) are field-independent, and indeed work over the integers.
We study birational geometry of the moduli space of stable sheaves on a quadric surface with Hilbert polynomial $5m + 1$ and $c_{1} = (2, 3)$. We describe a birational map between the moduli space and a projective bundle over a Grassmannian as a composition of smooth blow-ups/downs.
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 study the moduli space of stable sheaves of Euler characteristic 1 supported on curves of bidegree (3, 3) contained in a smooth quadric surface. We show that this moduli space is rational. We compute its Betti numbers by studying the variation of the moduli spaces of alpha-semi-stable pairs.
We show that the moduli space of semi-stable sheaves on a smooth quadric surface, having dimension 1, multiplicity 4, Euler characteristic 2, and first Chern class (2, 2), is the blow-up at two points of a certain hypersurface in a weighted projective space.
Quadric bundles on a compact Riemann surface X generalise orthogonal bundles and arise naturally in the study of the moduli space of representations of $π_1(X)$ in Sp(2n,R). We prove some basic results on the moduli spaces of quadric bundles over X of arbitrary rank and then survey deeper results in the rank 2 case.
We study the moduli space of smooth complete intersections of two quadrics in $\mathbb{P}^n$ by relating it to the geometry of the singular members of the corresponding pencils. Giving an alternative presentation for the moduli space of complete intersections, we compute the Picard group for all $n\geq 3$.
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.
We prove that the moduli space of stable sheaves of rank 2 with a certain Chern classes on a smooth quadric $Q$ in $\PP_3$, is isomorphic to $\PP_3$. Using this identification, we give a new proof that a certain Brill-Noether locus on a non-hyperelliptic curve of genus 4, is isomorphic to the Donagi-Izadi cubic threefold.
In this paper, we study the Picard group of the moduli space of semistable sheaves on a smooth quadric surface. We polarize the surface by an ample divisor close to the anticanonical class. We focus especially on moduli spaces of sheaves of small discriminant, where we observe new and interesting behavior. Our method relies on constructing certain resolutions for semistable sheaves and applying techniques of geometric invariant theory to the resulting families of sheaves.
In [GH], Griffiths and Harris asked whether a projective complex submanifold of codimension two is determined by the moduli of its second fundamental forms. More precisely, given a nonsingular subvariety $X^n \subset {\mathbb P}^{n+2}$, the second fundamental form $II_{X,x}$ at a point $x \in X$ is a pencil of quadrics on $T_x(X)$, defining a rational map $μ^X$ from $X$ to a suitable moduli space of pencils of quadrics on a complex vector space of dimension $n$. The question raised by Griffiths and Harris was whether the image of $μ^X$ determines $X$. We study this question when $X^n \subset {…
We study the moduli space of stable sheaves of Euler characteristic 1 supported on curves of arithmetic genus 3 contained in a smooth quadric surface. We show that this moduli space is rational. We compute its Betti numbers by studying the variation of the moduli spaces of alpha-semi-stable pairs. We classify the stable sheaves using locally free resolutions or extensions. We give a global description: the moduli space is obtained from a certain flag Hilbert scheme by performing two flips followed by a blow-down.
Given two vector bundles E and F on a variety X and a morphism from Sym^2(E) to F, we compute the cohomology class of the locus in X where the kernel of this morphism contains a quadric of prescribed rank. Our formulas have many applications to moduli theory: (i) we find a simple proof of Borcherds' result that the Hodge class on the moduli space of polarized K3 surfaces of fixed genus is of Noether-Lefschetz type, (ii) we construct an explicit canonical divisor on the Hurwitz space parametrizing degree k covers of the projective line from curves of genus 2k-1, (iii) we provide a closed formul…
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 introduce a compact moduli of noncommutative quadrics, and show that it is the weighted projective space of weight (2,4,4,6). We also introduce a compact moduli of potentials for the conifold quiver, and show that it is the weighted projective space of weight (1,2,3,4). There is a natural morphism from the latter to the former, which is finite of degree 4.
We present a survey on the moduli spaces of rank 2 quadric bundles over a compact Riemann surface X. These are objects which generalise orthogonal bundles and which naturally occur through the study of the connected components of the moduli spaces of Higgs bundles over X for the real symplectic group Sp(4,R), with non-maximal Toledo invariant. Hence they are also related with the moduli space of representations of $π_1(X)$ in Sp(4,R). We explain this motivation in some detail.
We study double line structures in projective spaces and quadric hypersurfaces, and investigate the geometry of irreducible components of Hilbert scheme of curves and moduli of stable sheaves of pure dimension 1 on a smooth quadric threefold.
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 show that the K-moduli spaces of log Fano pairs $(\mathbb{P}^1\times\mathbb{P}^1, cC)$ where $C$ is a $(4,4)$-curve and their wall crossings coincide with the VGIT quotients of $(2,4)$ complete intersection curves in $\mathbb{P}^3$. This, together with recent results by Laza-O'Grady, implies that these K-moduli spaces form a natural interpolation between the GIT moduli space of $(4,4)$-curves on $\mathbb{P}^1\times\mathbb{P}^1$ and the Baily-Borel compactification of moduli of quartic hyperelliptic K3 surfaces.
Addressing a question of M. Stillman, it had been shown by Ein, Eisenbud, and the author that in a projective space of dimension at most 5, every arithmetically Cohen-Macaulay curve which is cut out by quadrics scheme- theoretically also has its homogeneous ideal generated by quadrics. In this note it is shown that this is not the case in higher dimensional spaces.
Let N be the moduli space of stable rank 2 quasiparabolic vector bundles of fixed degree on the projective line with 2g+1 marked points, where g>1, and stability is with respect to the weights {0,1/2} at each marked point. In this note we show that N is isomorphic to the variety of (g-2)-dimensional linear subspaces of P^{2g}, contained in the intersection of two quadrics. The proof relies on the work of Bhosle on the relation among quasiparabolic vector bundles on P^1 and invariant vector bundles on hyperelliptic curves, and the description by Bhosle and Ramanan of the moduli space of stable …
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 $g \geq 2$.
Moduli spaces of complete collineations are wonderful compactifications of spaces of linear maps of maximal rank between two fixed vector spaces. We investigate the birational geometry of moduli spaces of complete collineations and quadrics from the point of view of Mori theory. We compute their effective, nef and movable cones, the generators of their Cox rings, and their groups of pseudo-automorphisms. Furthermore, we give a complete description of both the Mori chamber and stable base locus decompositions of the effective cone of the space of complete collineations of the 3-dimensional proj…
Bidouble covers $π: S \mapsto Q$ of the quadric Q are parametrized by connected families depending on four positive integers a,b,c,d. In the special case where b=d we call them abc-surfaces. Such a Galois covering $π$ admits a small perturbation yielding a general 4-tuple covering of Q with branch curve $\De$, and a natural Lefschetz fibration obtained from a small perturbation of the composition of $ π$ with the first projection. We prove a more general result implying that the braid monodromy factorization corresponding to $\De$ determines the three integers a,b,c in the case of abc-surfaces…
We analyze GIT stability of nets of quadrics in $\mathbb{P}^4$ up to projective equivalence. Since a general net of quadrics defines a canonically embedded smooth curve of genus five, the resulting GIT quotient gives a birational model of the moduli space of genus 5 curves. We study the geometry of the associated contraction and prove that the constructed GIT quotient is the final step of the log minimal model program for the moduli space of genus 5 curves.
We construct the moduli space of Enriques surfaces in positive characteristic and eventually over the integers, and determine its local and global structure. As an application, we show lifting of Enriques surfaces to characteristic zero. The key observation is that the canonical double cover of an Enriques surface is birational to the complete intersection of three quadrics in IP^5, even in characteristic 2.
The Desale-Ramanan Theorem is an isomorphism between the moduli space of rank two vector bundles over complex hyperelliptic curve and the variety of linear subspaces in an intersection of two quadrics. We prove a real version of this theorem for the moduli space of real vector bundles over a real hyperelliptic curve. We then apply this result to study the topology of the moduli space, proving that it is relatively spin and identifying the diffeomorphism type for genus two curves. Our results lay the groundwork for future study of the quantum homology of these moduli spaces.
We study birational maps among 1) the moduli space of semistable torsion sheaves of Hilbert polynomial $4m+2$ on a smooth quadric surface, 2) the moduli space of semistable torsion sheaves of Hilbert polynomial $m^{2}+3m+2$ on $\mathbb{P}^{3}$, 3) Kontsevich's moduli space of genus zero stable maps of degree 2 to Grassmannian $Gr(2, 4)$. A regular birational morphism from 1) to 2) is described in terms of Fourier-Mukai transform. The map from 3) to 2) is Kirwan's partial desingularization. Also we investigate several geometric properties of 1) by using the variation of moduli spaces of stable …
In this paper we connect degenerations of Fano threefolds by projections. Using Mirror Symmetry we transfer these connections to the side of Landau--Ginzburg models. Based on that we suggest a generalization of Kawamata's categorical approach to birational geometry enhancing it via geometry of moduli spaces of Landau--Ginzburg models. We suggest a conjectural application to Hasset--Kuznetsov--Tschinkel program based on new nonrationality "invariants" we consider --- gaps and phantom categories. We make several conjectures for these invariants in the case of surfaces of general type and quadric…
We determine the Chow ring (with Q-coefficients) of M_6 by showing that all Chow classes are tautological. In particular, all algebraic cohomology is tautological, and the natural map from Chow to cohomology is injective. To demonstrate the utility of these methods, we also give quick derivations of the Chow groups of moduli spaces of curves of lower genus. The genus 6 case relies on the particularly beautiful Brill-Noether theory in this case, and in particular on a rank 5 vector bundle "relativizing" a baby case of a celebrated construction of Mukai, which we interpret as a subbundle of the …
In this paper the notion of rational simple connectedness for the quintic Fano threefold $V_5\subset \mathbb{P}^6$ is studied and unirationality of the moduli spaces $\overline{M}_{0,0}^{\text{bir}}(V_5,d)$, with $d \ge 1$, is proved. Many further unirationality results for special moduli spaces of rational curves on quadric hypersurfaces and del Pezzo surfaces are obtained via explicit birational methods.
We study the arithmetic of complete intersections in projective space over number fields. Our main results include arithmetic Torelli theorems and versions of the Shafarevich conjecture, as proved for curves and abelian varieties by Faltings. For example, we prove an analogue of the Shafarevich conjecture for cubic and quartic threefolds and intersections of two quadrics.
For any odd $n$, we describe a smooth minimal (i.e. obtained by adding an irreducible hypersurface) compactification $\tilde S_n$ of the quasi-projective homogeneous variety $S_{n}=PGL(n+1)/SL(2)$ that parameterizes the rational normal curves in $P^n$. We show that $\tilde S_{n}$ is isomorphic to a component of the Maruyama scheme of the semi-stable sheaves on $P^n$ of rank $n$ and Chern polynomial $(1+t)^{n+2}$ and we compute its Betti numbers. In particular $\tilde S_{3}$ is isomorphic to the variety of nets of quadrics defining twisted cubics, studied by G. Ellinsgrud, R. Piene and S. Strøm…
We construct an example of the birationally rigid complete intersection of a quadric and a cubic in $\PA^5$ with an ordinary double point, which under a small deformation gives a non-rigid Fano variety. Thus we show that birational rigidity is not open in moduli.
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…
Given a smooth non-hyperelliptic prime Fano threefold X, we prove the existence of all rank 2 ACM vector bundles on X by deformation of semistable sheaves. We show that these bundles move in generically smooth components of the corresponding moduli space. We give applications to pfaffian representations of quartic threefolds in P^4 and cubic hypersurfaces of a smooth quadric of P^5.
In this note, we extend work of Farkas and Rimányi on applying quadric rank loci to finding divisors of small slope on the moduli space of curves by instead considering all divisorial conditions on the hypersurfaces of a fixed degree containing a projective curve. This gives rise to a large family of virtual divisors on $\overline{\mathcal{M}_g}$. We determine explicitly which of these divisors are candidate counterexamples to the Slope Conjecture. The potential counterexamples exist on $\overline{\mathcal{M}_g}$, where the set of possible values of $g\in \{1,\ldots,N\}$ has density $Ω(\log(N)…
We study the wall-crossing for moduli spaces of coherent systems of dimension one and order one on a smooth projective variety over the complex numbers. We compute the topological Euler characteristic of the moduli spaces in the particular case when the variety is a quadric surface, the first Chern class of the coherent systems is of the form (2,r) and the second Chern class is bounded from below by 3r + 1 and also by 4r - 8.
Let X be a K3 surface which is intersection of three (a net P^2) of quadrics in P^5. The curve of degenerate quadrics has degree 6 and defines a double covering of P^2 K3 surface Y ramified in this curve. This is a classical example of a correspondence between K3 surfaces which is related with moduli of vector bundles on K3 studied by Mukai. When general (for fixed Picard lattices) X and Y are isomorphic? We give necessary and sufficient conditions in terms of Picard lattices of X and Y. E.g. for Picard number 2, the Picard lattice of X and Y is defined by its determinant (-d) where d>0, d\equ…
In this work we study the Humbert-Edge's curves of type 5, defined as a complete intersection of four diagonal quadrics in $\mathbb{P}^5$. We characterize them using Kummer surfaces and using the geometry of these surfaces we construct some vanishing thetanulls on such curves. In addition, we describe an argument to give an isomorphism between the moduli space of Humbert-Edge's curves of type 5 and the moduli space of hyperelliptic curves of genus 2, and we let see how this argument can be generalized to state an isomorphism between the moduli space of hyperelliptic curves of genus $g=\frac{n-…
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 …
Hausel introduced a commutative algebra -- the multiplicity algebra -- associated to a fixed point of the C^*-action on the Higgs bundle moduli space. Here we describe this algebra for a fixed point consisting of a very stable rank 2 vector bundle and zero Higgs field for a curve of low genus. Geometrically, the relations in the algebra are described by a family of quadrics and we focus on the discriminant of this family, providing a new viewpoint on the moduli space of stable bundles. The discriminant in our examples demonstrates that as the bundle varies, we obtain a continuous variation in …
We consider an analogue of the notion of instanton bundle on the projective 3-space, consisting of a class of rank-2 vector bundles defined on smooth Fano threefolds X of Picard number one, having even or odd determinant according to the parity of K_X. We first construct a well-behaved irreducible component of their moduli spaces. Then, when the intermediate Jacobian of X is trivial, we look at the associated monads, hyperdeterminants and nets of quadrics. We also study one case where the intermediate Jacobian of X is non-trivial, namely when X is the intersection of two quadrics in P5, relati…
We describe the birational model of $\bar{M}_6$ given by quadric hyperplane sections of the degree 5 del Pezzo surface. In the spirit of the genus 4 case treated by Fedorchuk, we show that it is the last non-trivial space in the log minimal model program for $\bar{M}_6$. We also obtain a new upper bound for the moving slope of the moduli space.
The moduli space M_0 of semi-stable rank 2 vector bundles with fixed trivial determinant over a non-hyperelliptic curve C of genus 3 is isomorphic to a quartic hypersurface in P^7 (Coble's quartic). We show that M_0 is self-dual and that its polar map associates to a stable bundle E \in M_0 a bundle F which is characterized by dim H^0(C, E \otimes F) = 4. The projective space PH^0(C, E \otimes F) is equipped with a net of quadrics Πand it is shown that the map which associates to E \in M_0 the isomorphism class of the plane quartic Hessian curve of Πis a dominant map to the moduli space of gen…
We investigate properties of Waring decompositions of real homogeneous forms. We study the moduli of real decompositions, so-called Space of Sums of Powers, naturally included in the Variety of Sums of Powers. Explicit results are obtained for quaternary quadrics, relating the algebraic boundary of ${\rm SSP}$ to various loci in the Hilbert scheme of four points in $\mathbb{P}^3$. Further, we study the locus of general real forms whose real rank coincides with the complex rank. In case of quaternary quadrics the boundary of this locus is a degree forty hypersurface $J(σ_3(v_3(\mathbb{P}^3)),τ(…
