On the number of moduli of plane sextics with six cusps

Let be the variety of irreducible sextics with six cusps as singularities. Let be one of irreducible components of . Denoting by the space of moduli of smooth curves of genus 4, we consider the rational map sending the general point [Γ] of Σ, corresponding to a plane curve , to the point of parametrizing the normalization curve of Γ. The number of moduli of Σ is, by definition the dimension of Π(Σ). We know that , where ρ(2, 4, 6) is the Brill–Noether number of linear series of dimension 2 and degree 6 on a curve of genus 4. We prove that both irreducible components of have number of moduli equal to seven.      

Fundamental groups of moduli and the Grothendieck-Teichmüller group

Let denote the moduli space of Riemann spheres with ordered marked points. In this article we define the group of quasi-special symmetric outer automorphisms of the algebraic fundamental group for all to be the group of outer automorphisms respecting the conjugacy classes of the inertia subgroups of and commuting with the group of outer automorphisms of obtained by permuting the marked points. Our main result states that is isomorphic to the Grothendieck-Teichmüller group for all .

     

Towards a classification of modular compactifications of \mathcal {M}_{g,n}

The moduli space of smooth curves admits a beautiful compactification $\mathcal{M}_{g,n} \subset \overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ by the moduli space of stable curves. In this paper, we undertake a systematic classification of alternate modular compactifications of $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$ . Let $\mathcal{U}_{g,n}$ be the (non-separated) moduli stack of all n-pointed reduced, connected, complete, one-dimensional schemes of arithmetic genus g. When g=0, $\mathcal{U}_{0,n}$ is irreducible and we classify all open proper substacks of $\mathcal{U}_{0,n}$ . When g≥1, $\mathcal{U}_{g,n}$ may not be irreducible, but there is a unique irreducible component $\mathcal{V}_{g,n} \subset\mathcal{U}_{g,n}$ containing $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$ . We classify open proper substacks of $\mathcal {V}_{g,n}$ satisfying a certain stability condition.     

Integral homology -spheres and the Johnson filtration

The mapping class group of an oriented surface of genus with one boundary component has a natural decreasing filtration , where is the kernel of the action of on the nilpotent quotient of . Using a tree Lie algebra approximating the graded Lie algebra we prove that any integral homology sphere of dimension has for some a Heegaard decomposition of the form , where and is such that . This proves a conjecture due to S. Morita and shows that the ``core' of the Casson invariant is indeed the Casson invariant.

     

Weil-Petersson volumes and intersection theory on the moduli space of curves

In this paper, we establish a relationship between the Weil- Petersson volume of the moduli space of hyperbolic Riemann surfaces with geodesic boundary components of lengths , and the intersection numbers of tautological classes on the moduli space of stable curves. As a result, by using the recursive formula for obtained in the author's Simple geodesics and Weil-Petersson volumes of moduli spaces of bordered Riemann surfaces, preprint, 2003, we derive a new proof of the Virasoro constraints for a point. This result is equivalent to the Witten-Kontsevich formula.

     

Poisson geometry of differential invariants of curves in some nonsemisimple homogeneous spaces

In this paper we describe a family of compatible Poisson structures defined on the space of coframes (or differential invariants) of curves in flat homogeneous spaces of the form where is semisimple. This includes Euclidean, affine, special affine, Lorentz, and symplectic geometries. We also give conditions on geometric evolutions of curves in the manifold so that the induced evolution on their differential invariants is Hamiltonian with respect to our main Hamiltonian bracket.

     

Areas of two-dimensional moduli spaces

Wolpert's formula expresses the Weil-Petersson -form in terms of the Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates in case of a closed or punctured surface. The area-form in Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates is invariant under the mapping class group on each 2-dimensional Teichmüller space of a surface with singularities, hence areas with respect to it can be calculated for 2-dimensional moduli spaces in cases when the Teichmüller space admits global Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates: The area of the moduli space for the signature is , the definition of signature is generalized to include punctures, cone points and geodesic boundary curves. In case the surface is represented by a Fuchsian group, the area is the classical Weil-Petersson area.     

Vanishing of the third simplicial cohomology group of

We show that . We first use the Connes-Tzygan exact sequence to prove that this is equivalent to the vanishing of the third cyclic cohomology group , where is the non-unital Banach algebra , and then prove that .

     

On finiteness of the set of intermediate subfactors

For type factors with , we show that the sets and are finite. Moreover, , the set of intermediate subfactors, is finite if and only if it is equal to . If is an irreducible subfactor, then we recover a result of Y. Watatani.

     

Maximum curves and isolated points of entire functions

Given , curves belonging to the set of points were defined by Hardy to be maximum curves. Clunie asked the question as to whether the set could also contain isolated points. This paper shows that maximum curves consist of analytic arcs and determines a necessary condition for such curves to intersect. Given two entire functions and , if the maximum curve of is the real axis, conditions are found so that the real axis is also a maximum curve for the product function . By means of these results an entire function of infinite order is constructed for which the set has an infinite number of isolated points. A polynomial is also constructed with an isolated point.

     

Serre duality for non-commutative -bundles

Let be a smooth scheme of finite type over a field , let be a locally free -bimodule of rank , and let be the non-commutative symmetric algebra generated by . We construct an internal functor, , on the category of graded right -modules. When has rank 2, we prove that is Gorenstein by computing the right derived functors of . When is a smooth projective variety, we prove a version of Serre Duality for using the right derived functors of .

     

Smoothness of equisingular families of curves

Francesco Severi (1921) showed that equisingular families of plane nodal curves are T-smooth, i.e. smooth of the expected dimension, whenever they are non-empty. For families with more complicated singularities this is no longer true. Given a divisor on a smooth projective surface it thus makes sense to look for conditions which ensure that the family of irreducible curves in the linear system with precisely singular points of types is T-smooth. Considering different surfaces including the projective plane, general surfaces in , products of curves and geometrically ruled surfaces, we produce a sufficient condition of the type

where is some invariant of the singularity type and is some constant. This generalises the results of Greuel, Lossen, and Shustin (2001) for the plane case, combining their methods and the method of Bogomolov instability. For many singularity types the -invariant leads to essentially better conditions than the invariants used by Greuel, Lossen, and Shustin (1997), and for most classes of geometrically ruled surfaces our results are the first known for T-smoothness at all.

     

Geometry of the mapping class groups I: Boundary amenability

We construct a geometric model for the mapping class group of a non-exceptional oriented surface S of genus g with k punctures and use it to show that the action of on the compact metrizable Hausdorff space of complete geodesic laminations for S is topologically amenable. As a consequence, the Novikov higher signature conjecture holds for every subgroup of .     

Degenerating curves and surfaces: first results

Let be a smooth family of surfaces whose general fibre is a smooth surface of ℙ³ and whose special fibre has two smooth components, intersecting transversally along a smooth curve R. We consider the Universal Severi-Enriques variety on . The general fibre of is the variety of curves on in the linear system with k cusps and δ nodes as singularities. Our problem is to find all irreducible components of the special fibre of . In this paper, we consider only the cases (k, δ) = (0, 1) and (k, δ) = (1, 0). In particular, we determine all singular curves on the special fibre of which, counted with the right multiplicity, are a limit of 1-cuspidal curves on the general fibre of .      

Realization of the mapping class group by homeomorphisms

In this paper, we show that the mapping class group of a closed surface can not be geometrically realized as a group of homeomorphisms of that surface. More precisely, let denote the standard projection of the group of homeomorphisms to the mapping class group of a closed surface M of genus g>5. We show that there is no homomorphism , such that is the identity. This answers a question by Thurston (see [11]). Mathematics Subject Classification (2000)  Primary 20H10, 37F30     

Seiberg-Witten invariants, orbifolds, and circle actions

The main result of this paper is a formula for calculating the Seiberg-Witten invariants of 4-manifolds with fixed-point-free circle actions. This is done by showing under suitable conditions the existence of a diffeomorphism between the moduli space of the 4-manifold and the moduli space of the quotient 3-orbifold. Two corollaries include the fact that } 1$"> -manifolds with fixed-point-free circle actions are simple type and a new proof of the equality . An infinite number of -manifolds with whose Seiberg-Witten invariants are still diffeomorphism invariants is constructed and studied.

     

LS-category of compact Hausdorff foliations

The transverse (saturated) Lusternik-Schnirelmann category of foliations, introduced by the first author, is an invariant of foliated homotopy type with values in . A foliation with all leaves compact and Hausdorff leaf space is called compact Hausdorff. The transverse saturated category of a compact Hausdorff foliation is always finite.

In this paper we study the transverse category of compact Hausdorff foliations. Our main result provides upper and lower bounds on the transverse category in terms of the geometry of and the Epstein filtration of the exceptional set . The exceptional set is the closed saturated foliated space which is the union of the leaves with non-trivial holonomy. We prove that

We give examples to show that both the upper and lower bounds are realized, so the estimate is sharp. We also construct a family of examples for which the transverse category for a compact Hausdorff foliation can be arbitrarily large, though the category of the leaf spaces is constant.

     

Irreducibility of equisingular families of curves

In 1985 Joe Harris proved the long-standing claim of Severi that equisingular families of plane nodal curves are irreducible whenever they are nonempty. For families with more complicated singularities this is no longer true. Given a divisor on a smooth projective surface it thus makes sense to look for conditions which ensure that the family of irreducible curves in the linear system with precisely singular points of types is irreducible. Considering different surfaces, including general surfaces in and products of curves, we produce a sufficient condition of the type

where is some constant and some zero-dimensional scheme associated to the singularity type. Our results carry the same asymptotics as the best known results in this direction in the plane case, even though the coefficient is worse. For most of the surfaces considered these are the only known results in that direction.