No Arabic abstract
For $4 mid L$ and $g$ large, we calculate the integral Picard groups of the moduli spaces of curves and principally polarized abelian varieties with level $L$ structures. In particular, we determine the divisibility properties of the standard line bundles over these moduli spaces and we calculate the second integral cohomology group of the level $L$ subgroup of the mapping class group (in a previous paper, the author determined this rationally). This entails calculating the abelianization of the level $L$ subgroup of the mapping class group, generalizing previous results of Perron, Sato, and the author. Finally, along the way we calculate the first homology group of the mod $L$ symplectic group with coefficients in the adjoint representation.
Let $Gamma$ be a finite-index subgroup of the mapping class group of a closed genus $g$ surface that contains the Torelli group. For instance, $Gamma$ can be the level $L$ subgroup or the spin mapping class group. We show that $H_2(Gamma;Q) cong Q$ for $g geq 5$. A corollary of this is that the rational Picard groups of the associated finite covers of the moduli space of curves are equal to $Q$. We also prove analogous results for surface with punctures and boundary components.
Let G be a finite group, and $g geq 2$. We study the locus of genus g curves that admit a G-action of given type, and inclusions between such loci. We use this to study the locus of genus g curves with prescribed automorphism group G. We completely classify these loci for g=3 (including equations for the corresponding curves), and for $g leq 10$ we classify those loci corresponding to large G.
We construct a compactification of the moduli spaces of abelian differentials on Riemann surfaces with prescribed zeroes and poles. This compactification, called the moduli space of multi-scale differentials, is a complex orbifold with normal crossing boundary. Locally, our compactification can be described as the normalization of an explicit blowup of the incidence variety compactification, which was defined in [BCGGM18] as the closure of the stratum of abelian differentials in the closure of the Hodge bundle. We also define families of projectivized multi-scale differentials, which gives a proper Deligne-Mumford stack, and our compactification is the orbifold corresponding to it. Moreover, we perform a real oriented blowup of the unprojectivized moduli space of multi-scale differentials such that the $mathrm{SL}_2(mathbb R)$-action in the interior of the moduli space extends continuously to the boundary.
This article accompanies my lecture at the 2015 AMS summer institute in algebraic geometry in Salt Lake City. I survey the recent advances in the study of tautological classes on the moduli spaces of curves. After discussing the Faber-Zagier relations on the moduli spaces of nonsingular curves and the kappa rings of the moduli spaces of curves of compact type, I present Pixtons proposal for a complete calculus of tautological classes on the moduli spaces of stable curves. Several open questions are discussed. An effort has been made to condense a great deal of mathematics into as few pages as possible with the hope that the reader will follow through to the end.
We give two proofs that appropriately defined congruence subgroups of the mapping class group of a surface with punctures/boundary have enormous amounts of rational cohomology in their virtual cohomological dimension. In particular we give bounds that are super-exponential in each of three variables: number of punctures, number of boundary components, and genus, generalizing work of Fullarton-Putman. Along the way, we give a simplified account of a theorem of Harer explaining how to relate the homotopy type of the curve complex of a multiply-punctured surface to the curve complex of a once-punctured surface through a process that can be viewed as an analogue of a Birman exact sequence for curve complexes. As an application, we prove upper and lower bounds on the coherent cohomological dimension of the moduli space of curves with marked points. For $g leq 5$, we compute this coherent cohomological dimension for any number of marked points. In contrast to our bounds on cohomology, when the surface has $n geq1$ marked points, these bounds turn out to be independent of $n$, and depend only on the genus.