The unirationality of the moduli space of curves of genus $\leq 14$

We prove that the moduli space ${\Cal M}_{g,n}$ of smooth curves of genus $g$ with $n$ marked points is rational for $g=6$ and $1 \le n \le 8$, and it is unirational for $g=8$ and $1 \le n \le 11$, $g=10$ and $1 \le n \le 3$, $g=12$ and $n = 1$.

Let M_{7,n} be the (coarse) moduli space of smooth curves of genus 7 with n marked points defined over the complex field. We denote by M^1_{7,n;4} the locus of points inside M_{7,n} representing curves carrying a g^1_4. It is classically known that M^1_{7,n;4} is irreducible of dimension 17+n. We prove in this paper that M^1_{7,n;4} is rational for 0<= n <= 11.

The moduli spaces of trigonal curves are proven to be rational when the genus is divisible by 4.

This article is a survey of P. Katsylo's proof that the moduli space of smooth projective complex curves of genus 3 is rational. We hope to make the argument more comprehensible and transparent by emphasizing the underlying geometry in the proof and its key structural features.

We prove that the moduli space of cubic fourfolds $\mathcal{C}$ contains a divisor $\mathcal{C}_{42}$ whose general member has a unirational parametrization of degree 13. This result follows from a thorough study of the Hilbert scheme of rational scrolls and an explicit construction of examples. We also show that $\mathcal{C}_{42}$ is uniruled.

We discuss topics on the geometry of the moduli space of curves. We present a short proof of the Harris-Mumford theorem on the Kodaira dimension of the moduli space which replaces the computations on the stack of admissible covers by a simple study of tautological Koszul bundles on M_g. We also present a streamlined self-contained account of Verra's recent work on the unirationality of M_g. Finally, we discuss a proof that the moduli space of curves of genus 22 is of general ...

In this note, we explain how certain matrix factorizations on cubic threefolds lead to families of curves of genus 15 and degree 16 in P^4. We prove that the moduli space M={(C,L) | C a curve of genus 15, L a line bundle on C of degree 16 with 5 sections} is birational to a certain space of matrix factorizations of cubics, and that M is uniruled. Our attempt to prove the unirationality of this space failed with our methods. Instead one can interpret our findings as evidence f...

In this note we look at the moduli space $\cR_{3,2}$ of double covers of genus three curves, branched along 4 distinct points. This space was studied by Bardelli, Ciliberto and Verra. It admits a dominating morphism $\cR_{3,2} \to {\mathcal A}_4$ to Siegel space. We show that there is a birational model of $\cR_{3,2}$ as a group quotient of a product of two Grassmannian varieties. This gives a proof of the unirationality of $\cR_{3,2}$ and hence a new proof for the unirationa...

We denote by $\mathcal{H}_{d,g,r}$ the Hilbert scheme of smooth curves, which is the union of components whose general point corresponds to a smooth irreducible and non-degenerate curve of degree $d$ and genus $g$ in $\mathbb{P}^r$. In this article, we show that $\mathcal{H}_{15,14,5}$ is non empty and reducible with two components of the expected dimension hence generically reduced. We also study the birationality of the moduli map up to projective motion and several key pro...

This paper surveys some applications of moduli theory to issues concerning the distribution of rational points on algebraic varieties. It will appear on the proceedings of the Fano Conference.