Related papers: The strong Franchetta Conjecture in arbitrary char…

We speculate about an algebro-geometric proof of Harer's theorem on the rational Picard group of the moduli space of smooth complex curves. In particular, we refine the approach of Diaz and Edidin involving the Hurwitz space which…

We study the Picard groups of moduli spaces of smooth complex projective curves that have a group of automorphisms with a prescribed topological action. One of our main tools is the theory of symmetric mapping class groups. In the first…

We construct five families of two-dimensional moduli spaces of parabolic Higgs bundles (respectively local systems) by taking the equivariant Hilbert scheme of a certain finite group acting on the cotangent bundle of an elliptic curve. We…

Let $X$ be a smooth proper genus 2 curve over an algebraically closed field of characteristic 2. The absolute Frobenius induces a rational map $F$ on the the moduli space $M\_X$ of semi-stable rank 2 vector bundles over $X$, which is…

We define the dimension 2g-1 Faber-Hurwitz Chow/homology classes on the moduli space of curves, parametrizing curves expressible as branched covers of P^1 with given ramification over infinity and sufficiently many fixed ramification points…

We develop a new general method for computing the decomposition type of the normal bundle to a projective rational curve. This method is then used to detect and explain an example of a Hilbert scheme that parametrizes all the rational…

Let $\mathcal{H}_g$ denote the moduli space of smooth hyperelliptic curves of genus $g$ in characteristic $p\geq 3$, and let $\mathcal{H}_g^f$ denote the $p$-rank $f$ stratum of $\mathcal{H}_g$ for $0 \leq f \leq g$. Achter and Pries note…

This paper establishes the correctness of a conjecture of Bertram-Feinberg and Mukai for a special class of globally generated rank-two bundles with canonical determinant over a generic Riemann surface of genus at least four.

K. Harada conjectured for any finite group $G$, the product of sizes of all conjugacy classes is divisible by the product of degrees of all irreducible characters. We study this conjecture when $G$ is the general linear group over a finite…

We establish a method for calculating the Poincar\'e series of moduli spaces constructed as quotients of smooth varieties by suitable non-reductive group actions; examples of such moduli spaces include moduli spaces of unstable vector or…

We prove that the number of curves of a fixed genus g over finite fields is a polynomial function of the size of the field if and only if g is at most 8. Furthermore, we determine for each positive genus g the smallest n such that the…

We prove a fixed point theorem for the action of certain local monodromy groups on \'etale covers and use it to deduce lower bounds in essential dimension. In particular, we give more geometric proofs of many (but not all) of the results of…

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…

The genus of projective curves discretely separates decidedly different two variable algebraic relations. So, we can focus on the connected moduli M_g of genus g curves. Yet, modern applications require a data variable (function) on such…

Let $\mathcal{C}$ be an irreducible plane curve of $\text{PG}(2,\mathbb{K})$ where $\mathbb{K}$ is an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p\geq 0$. A point $Q\in \mathcal{C}$ is an inner Galois point for $\mathcal{C}$ if the…

Given a connected reductive algebraic group G, we investigate the Picard group of the moduli stack of principal G-bundles over an arbitrary family of smooth curves.

In this paper, we study double structures supported on rational normal curves. After recalling the general construction of double structures supported on a smooth curve described in \cite{fer}, we specialize it to double structures on…

This is a continuation of "Rational families of vector bundles on curves, I". Let C be a smooth projective curve of genus at least 2 and let M be the moduli space of rank 2, stable vector bundles on C, with fixed determinant of degree 1.…

For any smooth connected linear algebraic group G over an algebraically closed field k, we describe the Picard group of the universal moduli stack of principal G-bundles over pointed smooth k-projective curves.

We prove the irreducibility of the spaces of rational curves on del Pezzo manifolds of Picard rank 1 and dimension at least 4 by analyzing the fibers of evaluation maps. As a corollary, we prove Geometric Manin's Conjecture in these cases.