New results on the geometry of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces

We briefly survey our recent results about the Mumford goodness of several canonical metrics on the moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces,including the Weil-Petersson metric,the Ricci metric, the Perturbed Ricci metric and the Kahler-Einstein metric.We prove the dual Nakano negativity of the Weil-Petersson metric.As applications of these results we deduce certain important results about the L~2-cohomology groups of the logarithmic tangent bundle over the compactifled moduli spaces.     

Weil-Petersson metric in the moduli space of compact polarized Kähler-Einstein manifolds of zero first Chern class

We study the problem of computing the curvature of the Weil-Petersson metric of the moduli space of general compact polarized Kähler-Einstein manifolds of zero first Chern class. We use canonical lifting of vector fields from the moduli space to the total deformation space to obtain a formula for the curvature of the Weil-Petersson metric. From this formula we obtain negative bisectional curvature for certain directions. This formula also reprove and explain the recent result of Schumacher that the holomorphic sectional curvature of the Weil-Petersson metric for K3-surfaces and symplectic manifolds are negative.     

The Picard group of the moduli of G-bundles on a curve

Let G be a complex semi-simple group, and X a compact Riemann surface. The moduli space of principal G-bundles on X, and in particular the holomorphic line bundles on this space and their global sections, play an important role in the recent applications of Conformal Field Theory to algebraic geometry. In this paper we determine the Picard group of this moduli space when G is of classical or G₂ coarse moduli space and the moduli stack).     

Higher Intersection Theory on Algebraic Stacks: I

In this paper and the sequel we establish a theory of Chow groups and higher Chow groups on algebraic stacks locally of finite type over a field and establish their basic properties. This includes algebraic stacks in the sense of Deligne–Mumford as well as Artin. An intrinsic difference between our approach and earlier approaches is that the higher Chow groups of Bloch enter into our theory early on and depends heavily on his fundamental work. Our theory may be more appropriately called the (Lichtenbaum) motivic homology and cohomology of algebraic stacks. One of the main themes of these papers is that such a motivic homology does provide a reasonable intersection theory for algebraic stacks (of finite type over a field), with several key properties holding integrally and extending to stacks locally of finite type. While several important properties of our higher Chow groups, like covariance for projective representable maps (that factor as the composition of a closed immersion into the projective space associated to a locally free coherent sheaf and the obvious projection), an intersection pairing and contravariant functoriality for all smooth algebraic stacks, are shown to hold integrally, our theory works best with rational coefficients.The main results of Part I are the following. The higher Chow groups are defined in general with respect to an atlas, but are shown to be independent of the choice of the atlas for smooth stacks if one uses finite coefficients with torsion prime to the characteristics or in general for Deligne–Mumford stacks. (Using some results on motivic cohomology, we extend this integrally to all smooth algebraic stacks in Part II.) Using cohomological descent, we extend Bloch's fundamental localization sequence for quasi-projective schemes to long exact localization sequences of the higher Chow groups modulo torsion for all Artin stacks: this is one of the main results of the paper. We show that these higher Chow groups modulo torsion are covariant for all proper representable maps between stacks of finite type while being contravariant for all representable flat maps and, in Part II, that they are independent of the choice of an atlas for all stacks of finite type over the given field k. The comparison with motivic cohomology, as is worked out in Part II, enables us to provide an explicit comparison of our theory for quotient stacks associated to actions of linear algebraic groups on quasi-projective schemes with the corresponding Totaro–Edidin–Graham equivariant intersection theory. As an application of our theory we compute the higher Chow groups of Deligne–Mumford stacks and show that they are isomorphic modulo torsion to the higher Chow groups of their coarse moduli spaces. As a by-product of our theory we also produce localization sequences in (integral) higher Chow groups for all schemes locally of finite type over a field: these higher Chow groups are defined as the Zariski hypercohomology with respect to the cycle complex.     

Asymptotic behaviour and the moduli space of doubly-periodic instantons

We study doubly-periodic instantons, i.e. instantons on the product of a 1-dimensional complex torus T with a complex line ℂ, with quadratic curvature decay. We determine the asymptotic behaviour of these instantons, constructing new asymptotic invariants. We show that the underlying holomorphic bundle extends to T×ℙ¹. The converse statement is also true, namely a holomorphic bundle on T×ℙ¹ which is flat on the torus at infinity, and satisfies a stability condition, comes from a doubly-periodic instanton. Finally, we study the hyperk?hler geometry of the moduli space of doubly-periodic instantons, and prove that the Nahm transform previously defined by the second author is a hyperk?hler isometry with the moduli space of certain meromorphic Higgs bundles on the dual torus. Received June 8, 2000 / final version received February 1, 2001?Published online April 3, 2001     

Quillen bundle and geometric prequantization of non-abelian vortices on a Riemann surface

In this paper we prequantize the moduli space of non-abelian vortices. We explicitly calculate the symplectic form arising from L ² metric and we construct a prequantum line bundle whose curvature is proportional to this symplectic form. The prequantum line bundle turns out to be Quillen’s determinant line bundle with a modified Quillen metric. Next, as in the case of abelian vortices, we construct line bundles over the moduli space whose curvatures form a family of symplectic forms which are parametrized by Ψ₀, a section of a certain bundle. The equivalence of these prequantum bundles are discussed.     

Navigation in tree spaces

The orientable cover of the moduli space of real genus zero algebraic curves with marked points is a compact aspherical manifold tiled by associahedra, which resolves the singularities of the space of phylogenetic trees. The resolution maps planar metric trees to their underlying abstract representatives, collapsing and folding an explicit geometric decomposition of the moduli space into cubes, endowing the resolving space with an interesting canonical pseudometric. Indeed, the given map can be reinterpreted as relating the real and the tropical versions of the Deligne–Knudsen–Mumford compactification of the moduli space of Riemann spheres.     

Some Koszul rings from geometry

We give examples of Koszul rings that arise naturally in algebraic geometry. In the first part, we prove a general result on Koszul property associated to an ample line bundle on a projective variety. Specifically, we show how Koszul property of multiples of a base point free ample line bundle depends on its Castelnuovo–Mumford regularity. In the second part, we give examples of Koszul rings that come from adjoint line bundles on minimal irregular surfaces of general type.     

Line bundles over a moduli space of logarithmic connections on a Riemann surface

We consider logarithmic connections, on rank n and degree d vector bundles over a compact Riemann surface X, singular over a fixed point x₀ ∈ X with residue in the center of the integers n and d are assumed to be mutually coprime. A necessary and sufficient condition is given for a vector bundle to admit such a logarithmic connection. We also compute the Picard group of the moduli space of all such logarithmic connections. Let denote the moduli space of all such logarithmic connections, with the underlying vector bundle being of fixed determinant L, and inducing a fixed logarithmic connection on the determinant line L. Let be the Zariski open dense subset parametrizing all connections such that the underlying vector bundle is stable. The space of all global sections of certain line bundles on are computed. In particular, there are no nonconstant algebraic functions on Therefore, there are no nonconstant algebraic functions on although is biholomorphic to a representation space which admits nonconstant algebraic functions. The moduli space admits a natural compactification by a smooth divisor. We investigate numerically effectiveness of this divisor at infinity. It turns out that the divisor is not numerically effective in general. Received: March 2004 Revision: May 2004 Accepted: May 2004     

Complete Sets of Relations in the Cohomology Rings of Moduli Spaces of Holomorphic Bundles and Parabolic Bundles Over a Riemann Surface

The cohomology ring of the moduli space of stable holomorphicvector bundles of rank n and degree d over a Riemann surfaceof genus g > 1 has a standard set of generators when n andd are coprime. When n = 2 the relations between these generatorsare well understood, and in particular a conjecture of Mumford,that a certain set of relations is a complete set, is knownto be true. In this article generalisations are given of Mumford'srelations to the cases when n > 2 and also when the bundlesare parabolic bundles, and these are shown to form completesets of relations. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification 14H60.     

Bubble tree compactification of moduli spaces of vector bundles on surfaces

We announce some results on compactifying moduli spaces of rank 2 vector bundles on surfaces by spaces of vector bundles on trees of surfaces. This is thought as an algebraic counterpart of the so-called bubbling of vector bundles and connections in differential geometry. The new moduli spaces are algebraic spaces arising as quotients by group actions according to a result of Kollár. As an example, the compactification of the space of stable rank 2 vector bundles with Chern classes c ₁ = 0, c ₁ = 2 on the projective plane is studied in more detail. Proofs are only indicated and will appear in separate papers.     

p-adic representations and vector bundles on Mumford curves

Christopher Deninger andAnnette Werner constructed a functor that associates representations of the algebraic fundamental group of an algebraic curve to a class of vector bundles on that curve. We compare this to a construction byFaltings for Mumford curves that associates representations of the Schottky group to semistable vector bundles of degree 0. We prove that for a certain class of vector bundles on Mumford curves the constructions induce isomorphic representations.     

Vector bundles on ruled Fano 3-folds

Let be a ruled Fano 3-fold. The goal of this paper is to compute the dimension, prove the irreducibility and smoothness and describe the structure of the moduli space M _L (2;c ₁,c ₂) of L-stable, rank 2 vector bundles E on X with certain Chern classes and for a suitable polarization L closely related to c ₂. More precisely, we will cover the study of some moduli spaces M _L (2;c ₁,c ₂) such that the generic point is given as a non-trivial extension of line bundles. This work nicely reflects the general philosophy that moduli spaces inherits a lot of geometrical properties of the underlying variety. Received: 16 February 1999 / Revised version: 2 July 1999     

A generalization of Higgs bundles to higher dimensional varieties

Let X be a smooth n-dimensional projective variety defined over and let L be a line bundle on X. In this paper we shall construct a moduli space parametrizing -cohomology L-twisted Higgs pairs, i.e., pairs where E is a vector bundle on X and . If we take , the canonical line bundle on X, the variety is canonically identified with the cotangent bundle of the smooth locus of the moduli space of stable vector bundles on X and, as such, it has a canonical symplectic structure. We prove that, in the general case, in correspondence to the choice of a non-zero section , one can define, in a natural way, a Poisson structure on . We also analyze the relations between this Poisson structure on and the canonical symplectic structure of the cotangent bundle to the smooth locus of the moduli space of parabolic bundles over X, with parabolic structure over the divisor D defined by the section s. These results generalize to the higher dimensional case similar results proved in [Bo1] in the case of curves. Received November 4, 1997; in final form May 28, 1998     

Ramadanov conjecture and line bundles over compact Hermitian symmetric spaces

We compute the Szegö kernels of the unit circle bundles of homogeneous negative line bundles over a compact Hermitian symmetric space. We prove that their logarithmic terms vanish in all cases and, further, that the circle bundles are not diffeomorphic to the unit sphere in ${\mathbb C^n}We compute the Szeg? kernels of the unit circle bundles of homogeneous negative line bundles over a compact Hermitian symmetric space. We prove that their logarithmic terms vanish in all cases and, further, that the circle bundles are not diffeomorphic to the unit sphere in \mathbb Cⁿ{\mathbb C^n} for Grassmannian manifolds of higher ranks. In particular, they provide an infinite family of smoothly bounded strictly pseudoconvex domains on complex manifolds for which the logarithmic term in the Fefferman expansion of the Szeg? kernel vanishes but whose boundary is not diffeomorphic to the sphere (in fact, it is not even locally spherical). The analogous results for the Bergman kernel are also obtained.     

Opers and theta functions

We construct natural maps (the Klein and Wirtinger maps) from moduli spaces of semistable vector bundles over an algebraic curve X to affine spaces, as quotients of the nonabelian theta linear series. We prove a finiteness result for these maps over generalized Kummer varieties (moduli space of torus bundles), leading us to conjecture that the maps are finite in general. The conjecture provides canonical explicit coordinates on the moduli space. The finiteness results give low-dimensional parametrizations of Jacobians (in for generic curves), described by 2Θ functions or second logarithmic derivatives of theta.We interpret the Klein and Wirtinger maps in terms of opers on X. Opers are generalizations of projective structures, and can be considered as differential operators, kernel functions or special bundles with connection. The matrix opers (analogues of opers for matrix differential operators) combine the structures of flat vector bundle and projective connection, and map to opers via generalized Hitchin maps. For vector bundles off the theta divisor, the Szegö kernel gives a natural construction of matrix oper. The Wirtinger map from bundles off the theta divisor to the affine space of opers is then defined as the determinant of the Szegö kernel. This generalizes the Wirtinger projective connections associated to theta characteristics, and the associated Klein bidifferentials.     

Poisson Structures on Moduli Spaces of Framed Vector Bundles on Surfaces

In this paper we prove that the moduli spaces of framed vector bundles over a surface X, satisfying certain conditions, admit a family of Poisson structures parametrized by the global sections of a certain line bundle on X. This generalizes to the case of framed vector bundles previous results obtained in [B2] for the moduli space of vector bundles over a Poisson surface. As a corollary of this result we prove that the moduli spaces of framed SU(r) – instantons on S⁴ = ℝ⁴ ∪ {∞} admit a natural holomorphic symplectic structure.     

Mumford curves in a specialized pencil of sextics

We discuss Mumford curves in the pencil on a Del Pezzo quintic surface constructed by Edge [Ed1]. The abstract group structures of the normalizer of the corresponding Schottky groups are described, which give us some knowledges on Mumford loci in moduli space of curves. Received: 5 July 2000 / Accepted: 23 October 2000