A Compactification of the Space of Plane Curves

In the past 20 years, compactifications of the families of curves in algebraic varieties X have been studied via stable maps, Hilbert schemes, stable pairs, unramified maps, and stable quotients. Each path leads to a different enumeration of curves. A common thread is the use of a 2-term deformation/obstruction theory to define a virtual fundamental class. The richest geometry occurs when X is a nonsingular projective variety of dimension 3. We survey here the 13/2 principa...

The purpose of this article is to give an overview of the construction of moduli spaces of curves from the viewpoint of the log minimal model program for M_g by providing an update of recent developments and discussing future problems. This survey is distinguished from the recent articles of Fedorchuk-Smyth and Morrison in its focus on low degree Hilbert stability of curves.

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 c...

The space of smooth genus 0 curves in projective space has a natural smooth compactification: the moduli space of stable maps, which may be seen as the generalization of the classical space of complete conics. In arbitrary genus, no such natural smooth model is expected, as the space satisfies ``Murphy's Law''. In genus 1, however, the situation remains beautiful. We give a natural smooth compactification of the space of elliptic curves in projective space, and describe some ...

The space of smooth rational curves of degree $d$ in a projective variety $X$ has compactifications by taking closures in the Hilbert scheme, the moduli space of stable sheaves or the moduli space of stable maps respectively. In this paper we compare these compactifications by explicit blow-ups and -downs when $X$ is a projective homogeneous variety and $d\leq 3$. Using the comparison result, we calculate the Betti numbers of the compactifications when $X$ is a Grassmannian v...

The aim of this paper is to study some modular contractions of the moduli space of stable pointed curves. These new moduli spaces, which are modular compactifications of the moduli space of smooth pointed curves, are related with the minimal model program for the moduli space of stable pointed curves and have been introduced in a previous work of the authors. We interpret them as log canonical models of adjoints divisors and we then describe the Shokurov decomposition of a re...

Consider the moduli space M^0 of arrangements of n hyperplanes in general position in projective (r-1)-space. When r=2 the space has a compactification given by the moduli space of stable curves of genus 0 with n marked points. In higher dimensions, the analogue of the moduli space of stable curves is the moduli space of stable pairs: pairs (S,B) consisting of a variety S (possibly reducible) and a divisor B=B_1+..+B_n, satisfying various additional assumptions. We identify t...

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 $\tilde S_{3}$...

In this paper we give a construction of algebraic (Artin) stacks endowed with a modular map onto the moduli stack of n-pointed stable curves of genus g, for g greater than 2. These stacks are smooth, irreducible and have dimension 4g-3+n, yielding a geometrically meaningful compactification of the degree d universal Picard stack over the moduli stack of smooth curves with marked points.

This paper has two parts. In the first part, we review stable pairs and triples on curves, leading up to Thaddeus' diagram of flips and contractions starting from the blow-up of projective space along a curve embedded by a complete linear series of the form K + ample. In the second part, we identify log canonical divisors which exhibit Thaddeus' flips and contractions as "log" flips and contractions in the sense of the log-minimal-model program.