Related papers: On a question of Dolgachev
We prove that the moduli space C(d) of plane curves of degree d (for projective equivalence) is rational except possibly if d= 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 23, 24, 26, 32, 48.
Refereed version to appear in Michigan Mathematical Journal. A mistake in the last section of the previous version has been corrected. The new title exactly describes the main result obtained. Building on the geometry of cubic surfaces and…
Kontsevich's formula for rational plane curves is a recursive relation for the number $N_d$ of degree $d$ rational curves in $\mathbb{P}^2$ passing through $3d-1$ general points. We provide two proofs of this recursion: the first more…
We study the moduli spaces of rational curves on cubic hypersurfaces in characteristic $\neq2,3$. As a result, we prove that for every integer $d\geq1$ the Kontsevich moduli space of stable maps on a smooth cubic hypersurface $X$ of degree…
Kontsevich and Manin gave a formula for the number $N_e$ of rational plane curves of degree $e$ through $3e-1$ points in general position in the plane. When these $3e-1$ points have coordinates in the rational numbers, the corresponding set…
We discuss some examples of geometrically meaningful rational self-maps of moduli space of curves of low genus and homogeneous forms.
We show that for every positive integer n there is a simple closed curve in the plane (which can be taken infinitely differentiable and convex) which has exactly n inscribed squares.
We prove that the moduli space of plane curves of degree d is rational for all sufficiently large d.
These notes are intended as an easy-to-read supplement to part of the background material presented in my talks on enumerative geometry. In particular, the numbers $n_3$ and $n_4$ of plane rational cubics through eight points and of plane…
We consider the locus of irreducible nonsingular rational curves of degree d Pn, n>2, meeting a generic collection of linear subspaces. When this locus is 0 (resp 1)- dimensional, we compute (recursively) its degree (resp. geometric genus).…
Motivated by several recent results on the geometry of the moduli spaces $\bar{\Cal M}_{g,n}$ of stable curves of genus $g$ with $n$ marked points, here we determine their birational structure for small values of $g$ and $n$ by exploiting…
We bring additional support to the conjecture saying that a rational cuspidal plane curve is either free or nearly free. This conjecture was confirmed for curves of even degree, and in this note we prove it for many odd degrees. In…
The moduli spaces of trigonal curves of odd genus $g>4$ are proven to be rational.
Let $X$ be a general cubic hypersurface in $\mathbb P^4$. If $x\in X$ is a general point there are exactly six distinct lines in $X$ passing through $x$, that lie on the rank 3 quadric cone with vertex $x$ of lines that have intersection…
The moduli spaces of trigonal curves are proven to be rational when the genus is divisible by 4.
By associating to a curve C of genus g=2k and a pencil of degree d=k+1 the so-called trace curve (resp. the reduced trace curve) we define a rational map from the Hurwitz space of admissible covers of genus g=2k and degree d=k+1 to a moduli…
It is a classical result that there are $12$ (irreducible) rational cubic curves through $8$ generic points in $\mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{C}}^2$, but little is known about the non-generic cases. The space of $8$-point configurations is…
We study the moduli space of metric graphs that arise from tropical plane curves. There are far fewer such graphs than tropicalizations of classical plane curves. For fixed genus $g$, our moduli space is a stacky fan whose cones are indexed…
We completely classify all plane curves of degree at most 30 with a unique cuspidal (locally unibranch) singular point and rational normalization in terms of the Newton pairs parameterizing the cusp. We distinguish between prime and…
Given a hypersurface in the complex projective $n$-space we prove several known formulas for the degree of its polar map by purely algebro-geometric methods. Furthermore, we give formulas for the degree of its polar map in terms of the…