Abstracts



Lucia Caporaso

Analytification and tropicalization of the moduli space of Deligne-Mumford stable curves

Abstract: The talk will report on joint work with Dan Abramovich and Sam Payne on the relation between the
Berkovich analytification of the moduli space of Deligne-Mumford  stable curves and the moduli space of
tropical curves.


Alessandro Chiodo

Ghosts on moduli of level curves

Abstract: Level-r curves are genus-g curve C equipped with a line bundle L and a trivialization of Lr.
We review their (proper) moduli spaces Rg,r and their spin variants. I will mention certain results
motivating the study of such moduli spaces, within the framework of global mirror symmetry (joint work
with Iritani and Ruan) as well as in the context of the birational geometry of moduli of curves.
Then, I will focus on a fundamental aspect of level curves: their automorphisms and the presence of
ghosts (nontrivial automorphisms fixing all scheme-theoretic points). This is a crucial point in a recent
result obtained in collaboration with Eisenbud, Farkas et Schreyer: the moduli space of curves of genus
g>11 and level r=3 is of general type.



Hélène Esnault

Deligne's moduli of l-adic representations with bounded ramification

Abstract: Deligne showed a year ago that there are finitely many isomorphism classes of irreducible l-adic
representations with bounded ramification on X normal over a finite field. With Moritz Kerz, we slightly
simplified his proof. In the talk, we give an account of it.



Carel Faber

On the cohomology of the moduli spaces of curves of genus three with marked points

Abstract: I will first discuss a formula for the Euler characteristic of the compactly supported cohomology of Mg,n
of weight zero. With the help of the formula, Galois representations in the cohomology of M3,n can be detected
that aren't associated to Siegel modular forms. These Galois representations are rather mysterious, but appear
to be related to Teichmüller modular forms. I will also try to discuss the relation with the recent work of
Chenevier and Renard on level one algebraic cusp forms of classical groups.



Maksym Fedorchuk

Log canonical models of moduli spaces via GIT

Abstract: We will introduce the log minimal model program for the moduli space of curves and discuss
a particular approach to it via Geometric Invariant Theory of finite Hilbert points of (bi)canonical curves.
We will illustrate how GIT approach works in the case of moduli spaces of low genus curves, particularly
curves of genus 5, where the completion of the program is within reach.
This talk is based on joint work with Jarod Alper and David Smyth.



Tamás Hausel

Positivity for Kac polynomials and DT-invariants of quivers

Abstract: In this talk I will introduce Kac's conjecture from 1982 on the non-negativity of coefficients of
A-polynomials counting absolutely indecomposable representations of quivers over finite fields.
The proof is accomplished by a cohomological interpretation of these polynomials as a certain isotypical
component on the cohomology of some associated moduli spaces of quiver representations under the
action of a Weyl group. In the same setup we find a proof of the positivity of refined Donaldson-Thomas
invariants associated to the same quiver, conjectured by Kontsevich-Soibelman and first proved by Efimov.
This is joint work with Emmanuel Letellier and Fernando Rodrigues Villegas (arXiv:1204.2375).



Klaus Hulek

Uniruledness of modular varieties and reflective automorphic forms

Abstract: It has long been known that the existence of automorphic forms with special properties has
strong consequences for the geometry of modular varieties. Originally this has been used to prove general
type results, for example for moduli spaces of K3 surfaces. On the other hand automorphic forms can also
be used to prove that a moduli space has negative Kodaira dimension or is uniruled. Here we present a criterion
for uniruledness of modular varieties and illustrate this with examples of moduli spaces of lattice-polarized K3 surfaces.



Jun-Muk Hwang

Buser-Sarnak invariants of Prym varieties


Abstract: The Buser-Sarnak invariant of a principally polarized abelian variety measures the square of the
minimal length of periods. Buser and Sarnak showed that the Buser-Sarnak invariant of a Jacobian variety J
is bounded by \frac{3}{\pi} log(4 dim J +3). Using Lazarsfeld's work on the relation between Buser-Sarnak
invariant and Seshadri number, Bauer showed that the Buser-Sarnak invariant of a Prym variety P is bounded
by \frac{4}{\pi} \sqrt{2 \dim P}. He raised the question whether a bound of logarithmic order in \dim P exists,
in analogy with Buser-Sarnak's bound for Jacobians. Using a recent work of Balacheff-Parlier-Sabourau, we give
an affirmative answer: the Buser-Sarnak invariant of a Prym variety P is bounded by 220 log(2 dim P)$.



Alexis Kouvidakis

Divisors on Hurwitz spaces and moduli spaces of curves

Abstract: We ll discuss the geometry of the natural map from the Hurwitz space H2k,k+1 of simple
covers of the projective line of degree d=k+1 and genus g=2k to the moduli space of stable curves of genus g=2k.
We calculate the cycle class of the Hurwitz divisor D2 consisting of degree k+1 covers of the projective
line with simple ramification points, two of which lie in the same fibre. This has applications to bounds on the slope
of the moving cone of the moduli space of curves, the calculation of other divisor classes and led to an algebraic
proof for the formula of the Hodge bundle of the Hurwitz space. This is joint work with G. van der Geer.




Eduard Looijenga

Cohomological amplitude of moduli spaces of curves

 Abstract: We show that the cohomological amplitude of the universal curve of genus g is at most g-1.
This implies theorems of Harer and Diaz.




Martin Möller

Connected components of strata of the cotangent bundle of the moduli space of curves

 Abstract: The cotangent bundle to the moduli space of curves can be identified with the space of quadratic differentials.
As such it is stratified by the number and type of zeros of the quadratic differential. We classify connected components of

these strata, completing work of Lanneau. We also give applications to proving non-varying slope and sum of Lyapunov
exponents for Teichmueller curves.




Rahul Pandharipande

Curves and sheaves on 3-folds


Abstract: I will discuss joint work with A. Pixton on descendent integrals on certain moduli spaces of sheaves on 3-folds.
Descendents are simply the Chern characters of the universal sheaf. Their study has a rich structure which is parallel to
descendents (obtained from cotangent line classes on the moduli spaces of stable maps). An outcome of this work is the
proof of the GW/DT/ stable pairs correspondences for the quintic 3-fold.


Aaron Pixton

Tautological relations of Faber-Zagier type

Abstract: The tautological ring of the moduli space of smooth curves of genus g is the subring of its Chow ring generated
by the kappa classes. The Faber-Zagier relations are an explicit algebraic description of a large number of relations in this
ring, possibly giving all the relations. I will discuss three families of tautological relations defined in a similar fashion
to the Faber-Zagier relations.


Alessandro Verra

The geometry of A_5 arising from singularities of theta divisors

Abstract: Let H be the codimension two locus in Ag parametrizing principally polarized abelian varieties of dimension g whose
theta divisor has a non ordinary double point. The talk describes a series of results on H obtained in a joint work with Farkas,
Grushevsky and Salvati Manni. The case of dimension g = 5 is specially considered. For this case the components of H are
described in detail and the slope of the perfect cone compactification of A5 is computed.




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