Intersection theory on the moduli space of curves

Institute of Information Transmission Problems, Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Translated from Funktsional'nyi Analiz i Ego Prilozheniya, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 50–57, April–June, 1991.     

Explicit complete curves in the moduli space of curves of genus three

We explicitly describe complete, one-dimensional subvarieties of the moduli space of smooth complex curves of genus 3.Supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (N.W.O.).     

Slopes of effective divisors on the moduli space of stable curves

Research partially supported by NSF Grant #DMS-84-02209.     

The moduli space of curves of genus two covering elliptic curves

We consider the moduli spaceS _n of curvesC of genus 2 with the property:C has a “maximal” mapf of degreen to an elliptic curveE. Here, the term “maximal” means that the mapf∶C→E doesn't factor over an unramified cover ofE. By Torelli mapS _n is viewed as a subset of the moduli spaceA ₂ of principally polarized abelian surfaces. On the other hand the Humbert surfaceH _Δ of invariant Δ is defined as a subvariety ofA ₂(C), the set of C-valued points ofA ₂. The purpose of this paper is to releaseS _n withH _Δ.     

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.

     

A moduli space of non-compact curves on a complex surface

We show that under mild boundary conditions the moduli space of non-compact curves on a complex surface is (locally) an analytic subset of a ball in a Banach manifold, defined by finitely many holomorphic functions.     

Computing genus 2 curves from invariants on the Hilbert moduli space

We give a new method for generating genus 2 curves over a finite field with a given number of points on the Jacobian of the curve. We define two new invariants for genus 2 curves as values of modular functions on the Hilbert moduli space and show how to compute them. We relate them to the usual three Igusa invariants on the Siegel moduli space and give an algorithm to construct curves using these new invariants. Our approach simplifies the complex analytic method for computing genus 2 curves for cryptography and reduces the amount of computation required.     

A stratification of the moduli space of pointed non-singular curves

We consider the moduli space of pointed non-singular curves of genus g whose Weierstrass gap sequence has the largest gap \(\ell _g\) equal to \(2g-3\). We stratify the moduli space by the sequence of osculating divisors associated to a canonically embedded curve. A monomial basis for the space of higher orders regular differentials on the curves in each stratum is constructed. Numerical conditions are given on the semigroup imposing that one of the strata is empty. Several examples are presented.     

The universal theta divisor over the moduli space of curves

By computing the class of the universal antiramification locus of the Gauss map, we obtain a complete birational classification by Kodaira dimension of the universal theta divisor over the moduli space of curves.     

Heegner divisors in the moduli space of genus three curves

S. Kondo used periods of surfaces to prove that the moduli space of genus three curves is birational to an arithmetic quotient of a complex 6-ball. In this paper we study Heegner divisors in the ball quotient, given by arithmetically defined hyperplane sections of the ball. We show that the corresponding loci of genus three curves are given by hyperelliptic curves, singular plane quartics and plane quartics admitting certain rational ``splitting curves'.

     

Generators for the tautological algebra of the moduli space of curves

In this paper, we prove that the tautological algebra in cohomology of the moduli space M_g of smooth projective curves of genus g is generated by the first [g/3] Mumford-Morita-Miller classes. This solves a part of Faber's conjecture (Moduli of Curves and Abelian Varieties Vieweg, Braunschweig, 1999) concerning the structure of the tautological algebra affirmatively. More precisely, for any k we express the kth Mumford-Morita-Miller class e_k as an explicit polynomial in the lower classes for all genera g=3k−1,3k−2,…,2.     

The birational type of the moduli space of even spin curves

We determine the Kodaira dimension of the moduli space Sg of even spin curves for all g. Precisely, we show that Sg is of general type for g>8 and has negative Kodaira dimension for g<8.