A smooth compactification X<n> of the configuration space of n distinct labeled points in a smooth algebraic variety X is constructed by a natural sequence of blowups, with the full symmetry of the permutation group S_n manifest at each stage of the construction. The strata of the normal crossing divisor at infinity are labeled by trees with levels and their structure is studied. This is the maximal wonderful compactification in the sense of DeConcini-Procesi, and it has a strata-compatible surjection onto the Fulton-MacPherson compactification. The degenerate configurations added in the compactification are geometrically described by `polyscreens' similar to screens of Fulton and MacPherson. In characteristic 0, isotropy subgroups of the action of S_n on X<n> are abelian, thus X<n> may be a step toward an explicit resolution of singularities of the symmetric products X^n/S_n.
We study a compactification of the configuration space of n distinct labeled points on an arbitrary nonsingular variety. Our construction provides a generalization of the original Fulton-MacPherson compactification that is parallel to the generalization of the moduli space of n-pointed stable curves carried out by Hassett.
We study the Chow groups and the Chow motives of the wonderful compactifications $Y_{\mathcal{G}}$ of arrangements of subvarieties. We prove a natural decomposition of the Chow motive of $Y_\mathcal{G}$, in particular of the Fulton-MacPherson configuration space $X[n]$. As a consequence, we prove a decomposition of the Chow motive of $X[n]/\frak{S}_n$. A generating function for the Chow groups and for the Chow motive of $X[n]$ is given.
Let F(X,n):= X^n-Δbe the complementary of the union Δof the diagonals of X^n and let U be a quotient of F(X,n) (possibly trivial) by a subgroup of the symmetric group S_n. We construct compactifications of U in products of Hilbert schemes. Our approach generalizes and unifies classical constructions by Schubert-Semple, Le Barz-Keel, Kleiman and Cheah. An extensive study is done in the case n<4. This includes in particular a complete classification and a description of the quotients by the natural actions.
A compactification over $\overline{M}_g$ of $M_{g,n}$ is obtained by considering the relative Fulton-MacPherson configuration space of the universal curve. The resulting compactification differs from the Deligne-Mumford space $\overline{M}_{g,n}$. In case $n=2$, the compactification constructed here and the Deligne-Mumford compactification are essentially the distinct minimal resolutions of the fiber product over $\overline{M}_g$ of the universal curve with itself.
We prove the following: (1) if $X$ is ordinary, the Fulton-MacPherson configuration space $X[n]$ is ordinary for all $n$; (2) the moduli of stable $n$-pointed curves of genus zero is ordinary. (3) More generally we show that a wonderful compactification $X_\sg$ is ordinary if and only if $(X,\sg)$ is an ordinary building set. This implies the ordinarity of many other well-known configuration spaces (under suitable assumptions).
We show that the Fulton-MacPherson compactification of the configuration space of $n$ distinct labeled points in certain varieties of arbitrary dimension $d$, including projective space, is not a Mori dream space for $n$ larger than $d+8$.
We introduce a compactification of the group of rigid motions in 3-space derived from the Study model for this group. We use this compactifi-cation in robot kinematics, by considering the boundary of the configuration space of a robot. We study in particular the degeneration of the direct kine-matic problem for some parallel robots with three degrees of freedom.
We introduce and study smooth compactifications of the moduli space of n labeled points with weights in projective space, which have normal crossings boundary and are defined as GIT quotients of the weighted Fulton-MacPherson compactification. We show that the GIT quotient of a wonderful compactification is also a wonderful compactification under certain hypotheses. We also study a weighted version of the configuration spaces parametrizing n points in affine space up to translation and homothety. In dimension one, the above compactifications are isomorphic to Hassett's moduli space of rational…
In this paper we show a general method to compactify certain open varieties by adding normal crossing divisors. This is done by proving that {\it blowing up along an arrangement of subvarieties} can be carried out. Important examples such as Ulyanov's configuration spaces, spaces of holomorphic maps, etc., are covered. Intersection ring and (non-recursive) Hodge polynomails are computed. Further general structures arising from the blowup process are described and studied.
We describe a compactification by stable pairs (also known as KSBA compactification) of the $4$-dimensional family of Enriques surfaces which arise as the $\mathbb{Z}_2^2$-covers of the blow up of $\mathbb{P}^2$ at three general points branched along a configuration of three pairs of lines. Up to a finite group action, we show that this compactification is isomorphic to the toric variety associated to the secondary polytope of the unit cube. We relate the KSBA compactification considered to the Baily-Borel compactification of the same family of Enriques surfaces. Part of the KSBA boundary has …
Presented is a wonderful compactification of n distinct labeled points in X away from D, where X is a nonsingular variety and D is a nonsingular proper subvariety. When D is empty, it is the Fulton-MacPherson configuration space.
We study the moduli space $\mathcal{F}_{T_1}$ of quasi-trielliptic K3 surfaces of type I, whose general member is a smooth bidegree $(2,3)$-hypersurface of $\mathbb{P}^1\times \mathbb{P}^2$. Such moduli space plays an important role in the study of the Hassett-Keel-Looijenga program of the moduli space of degree $8$ quasi-polarized K3 surfaces. In this paper, we consider several natural compactifications of $\mathcal{F}_{T_1}$, such as the GIT compactification and arithmetic compactifications. We give a complete analysis of GIT stability of $(2,3)$-hypersurfaces and provide a concrete descript…
Projective duality identifies the moduli spaces $\mathbf{B}_n$ and $\mathbf{X}(3,n)$ parametrizing linearly general configurations of $n$ points in $\mathbb{P}^2$ and $n$ lines in the dual $\mathbb{P}^2$, respectively. The space $\mathbf{X}(3,n)$ admits Kapranov's Chow quotient compactification $\overline{\mathbf{X}}(3,n)$, studied also by Lafforgue, Hacking, Keel, Tevelev, and Alexeev, which gives an example of a KSBA moduli space of stable surfaces: it carries a family of certain reducible degenerations of $\mathbb{P}^2$ with $n$ "broken lines". Gerritzen and Piwek proposed a dual perspectiv…
We formulate the problem of renormalization of Feynman integrals and its relation to periods of motives in configuration space instead of momentum space. The algebro-geometric setting is provided by the wonderful compactifications of arrangements of subvarieties associated to the subgraphs of a Feynman graph and a (quasi)projective variety. The motive and the class in the Grothendieck ring are computed explicitly for these wonderful compactifications, in terms of the motive of the variety and the combinatorics of the Feynman graph, using recent results of Li Li. The pullback to the wonderful c…
Let $X[n]$ be the Fulton-MacPherson compactification of the configuration space of $n$ ordered points on a smooth projective variety $X$. We prove that if either $n\neq 2$ or $\dim(X)\geq 2$, then the connected component of the identity of $Aut(X[n])$ is isomorphic to the connected component of the identity of $Aut(X)$. When $X = C$ is a curve of genus $g(C)\neq 1$ we classify the dominant morphisms $C[n]\rightarrow C[r]$, and thanks to this we manage to compute the whole automorphism group of $C[n]$, namely $Aut(C[n])\cong S_n\times Aut(C)$ for any $n\neq 2$, while $Aut(C[2])\cong S_2\ltimes …
For $r \geq 1$ and $\mathbf{n} \in \mathbb{Z}_{\geq0}^r\setminus\{\mathbf{0}\}$, we construct a proper complex variety $\overline{2M}_{\mathbf{n}}$. $\overline{2M}_{\mathbf{n}}$ is locally toric, and it is equipped with a forgetful map $\overline{2M}_{\mathbf{n}} \to \overline M_{0,r+1}$. This space is a compactification of $2M_{\mathbf{n}}$, the configuration space of marked vertical lines in $\mathbb{C}^2$ up to translations and dilations. In the appendices, we give several examples and show how the stratification of $\overline{2M}_{\mathbf{n}}$ can be used to recursively compute its virtual…
I prove the existence, and describe the structure, of moduli space of pairs $(p,Θ)$ consisting of a projective variety $P$ with semiabelian group action and an ample Cartier divisor on it satisfying a few simple conditions. Every connected component of this moduli space is proper. A component containing a projective toric variety is described by a configuration of several polytopes, the main one of which is the secondary polytope. On the other hand, the component containing a principally polarized abelian variety provides a moduli compactification of $A_g$. The main irreducible component of th…
Suppose that X is a nonsingular variety and D is a nonsingular proper subvariety. Configuration spaces of distinct and non-distinct n points in X away from D were constructed by the author and B. Kim in arXiv:0806.3819, by using the method of wonderful compactification. In this paper, we give an explicit presentation of Chow motives and Chow rings of these configuration spaces.
The spaces of point configurations on the projective line up to the action of $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb K)$ and its maximal torus are canonically compactified by the Grothdieck-Knudsen and Losev-Manin moduli spaces $\overline M_{0,n}$ and $\overline L_n$ respectively. We examine the configuration space up to the action of the maximal unipotent group $\mathbb G_a\subseteq \mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb K)$ and define an analogous compactification. For this we first assign a canonical quotient to the action of a unipotent group on a projective variety. Moreover, we show that similar to $\overline M_{0,n}$ a…
For each Dynkin diagram $D$, we define a ''cluster configuration space'' ${\mathcal{M}}_D$ and a partial compactification ${\widetilde {\mathcal{M}}}_D$. For $D = A_{n-3}$, we have ${\mathcal{M}}_{A_{n-3}} = {\mathcal{M}}_{0,n}$, the configuration space of $n$ points on ${\mathbb P}^1$, and the partial compactification ${\widetilde {\mathcal{M}}}_{A_{n-3}}$ was studied in this case by Brown. The space ${\widetilde {\mathcal{M}}}_D$ is a smooth affine algebraic variety with a stratification in bijection with the faces of the Chapoton-Fomin-Zelevinsky generalized associahedron. The regular funct…
The symmetric group S_n acts freely on the configuration space of n distinct points in a quasi-projective variety. In this paper, we study the induced action of the symmetric group S_n on the de Rham cohomology of this space, using mixed Hodge theory, combined with methods from the theory of symmetric functions. (We prove a motivic version of this as well.) As an application of our results, we calculate the S_n-equivariant Hodge polynomial of the Fulton-MacPherson compactification X[n] of the configuration space.
In the moduli space M_g of genus g Riemann surfaces, consider the locus RM_O of Riemann surfaces whose Jacobians have real multiplication by the order O in a totally real number field F of degree g. If g = 2 or 3, we compute the closure of RM_O in the Deligne-Mumford compactification of M_g and the closure of the locus of eigenforms over RM_O in the Deligne-Mumford compactification of the moduli space of holomorphic one-forms. For higher genera, we give strong necessary conditions for a stable curve to be in the boundary of RM_O Boundary strata of RM_O are parameterized by configurations of el…
This paper continues our previous study of Feynman integrals in configuration spaces and their algebro-geometric and motivic aspects. We consider here both massless and massive Feynman amplitudes, from the point of view of potential theory. We consider a variant of the wonderful compactification of configuration spaces that works simultaneously for all graphs with a given number of vertices and that also accounts for the external structure of Feynman graph. As in our previous work, we consider two version of the Feynman amplitude in configuration space, which we refer to as the real and comple…
From the viewpoint of mirror symmetry, we revisit the hypergeometric system $E(3,6)$ for a family of K3 surfaces. We construct a good resolution of the Baily-Borel-Satake compactification of its parameter space, which admits special boundary points (LCSLs) given by normal crossing divisors. We find local isomorphisms between the $E(3,6)$ systems and the associated GKZ systems defined locally on the parameter space and cover the entire parameter space. Parallel structures are conjectured in general for hypergeometric system $E(n,m)$ on Grassmannians. Local solutions and mirror symmetry will be …
The equivariant Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomial of a braid matroid may be interpreted as the intersection cohomology of a certain partial compactification of the configuration space of n distinct labeled points in the plane, regarded as a graded representation of the symmetric group. We show that, in fixed cohomological degree, this sequence of representations of symmetric groups naturally admits the structure of an FS-module, and that the dual FS^op-module is finitely generated. Using the work of Sam and Snowden, we give an asymptotic formula for the dimensions of these representations and obtain …
We introduce a certain compactification of the space of projective configurations i.e. orbits of the group $PGL(k)$ on the space of $n$ - tuples of points in $P^{k-1}$ in general position. This compactification differs considerably from Mumford's geometric invariant theory quotient. It is obtained by considering limit position (in the Chow variety) of the closures of generic orbits. The same result will be obtained if we study orbits of the maximal torus on the Grassmannian $G(k,n)$. We study in detail the closures of the torus orbits and their "visible contours" which are Veronese varieties i…
We consider compactifications of the space of triples of distinct points in projective $n$-space. One such space is a singular variety of configurations of points and lines; another is the smooth compactification of Fulton and MacPherson; and a third is the triangle space of Schubert and Semple. We compute the sections of line bundles on these spaces, and show that they are equal as GL(n) representations to the generalized Schur modules associated to ``bad'' generalized Young diagrams with three rows (Borel-Weil theorem). On the one hand, this yields Weyl-type character and dimension formulas …
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 $n\ge 3$.
A well-known construction of associahedra comes from truncations of simplices. Motivated by compactifications of point configurations, we show associahedra as truncations of certain products of simplices. This is then used to provide a combinatorial construction of the real moduli space of spheres relating it to blow-ups of the braid hyperplane arrangement.
