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

We prove that the moduli spaces of K3 surfaces with non-symplectic involutions are unirational. As a by-product we describe configuration spaces of 4<d<9 points in the projective plane as arithmetic quotients of type IV.

The moduli space R_{g,2n} parametrizes double covers of smooth curves of genus g ramified at 2n points. We will prove the (uni)rationality of R_{g,2}, R_{g,4} and R_{g,6} in low genera.

We show that the moduli space of $U\oplus \langle -2k \rangle$-polarized K3 surfaces is unirational for $k \le 50$ and $k \notin \{11,35,42,48\}$, and for other several values of $k$ up to $k=97$. Our proof is based on a systematic study of the projective models of elliptic K3 surfaces in $\mathbb{P}^n$ for $3\le n \le 5$ containing either the union of two rational curves or the union of a rational and an elliptic curve intersecting at one point.

We provide explicit descriptions of the generic members of Hassett's divisors $\mathcal C_d$ for relevant $18\leq d\leq 38$ and for $d=44$. In doing so, we prove that $\mathcal C_d$ is unirational for $18\leq d\leq 38,d=44$. As a corollary, we prove that the moduli space $\mathcal N_{d}$ of polarized K3 surfaces of degree $d$ is unirational for $d=14,26,38$. The case $d=26$ is entirely new, while the other two cases have been previously proven by Mukai.

This is an informal set of lecture notes on moduli spaces of curves based on a set of lectures given at the ICTP last summer. It begins at an elementary level and discusses the genus 1 case in detail. The notes then give an informal treatement of Teichmuller space and higher genus moduli spaces. The point of view is generally topological and analytical.

In the past few years, substantial progress has been made in the understanding of the algebra of kappa classes on the moduli spaces of curves. My goal here is to provide a short introduction to the new results. Along the way, I will discuss several open questions. The article accompanies my talk at "A celebration of algebraic geometry" at Harvard in honor of the 60th birthday of J. Harris.

This is a survey paper that also contains some new results. It will appear in the proceedings of the AMS summer research institute on Algebraic Geometry at Santa Cruz.

This is the authors doctoral thesis written at the Humboldt-University Berlin. It contains material from the three separate papers: "On the Kodaira dimension of the moduli space of nodal curves", "On quotients of $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ by certain subgroups of $S_n$" and "The moduli space of hyperelliptic curves with marked points".

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 study $\mathcal{H}_{15,g,5}$ for every possible genus $g$ and determine their irreducibility. We also study the birationality of the moduli map up to projective equivalence and several key properties such as gonality of a gener...

We prove that the moduli space of plane curves of degree d is rational for all sufficiently large d.