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David Swinarski

Publications and source records attributed to David Swinarski.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Invariant polynomials and Mukai's models of moduli spaces of curves and K3 surfaces

Beginning in the 1980s, Mukai introduced birational models of some moduli spaces of curves and some moduli spaces of K3 surfaces. They are defined as geometric invariant theory quotients. Little is known about the boundaries of these spaces. We describe an approach to efficiently evaluate certain invariant polynomials associated to these GIT problems. This allows us to show that several singular curves and surfaces are GIT semistable in Mukai's models. In the appendix, we give a combinatorial formula for an $\operatorname{SL}_n$-invariant in terms of the Gelfand-Tsetlin basis.

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arXiv2025

The worst destabilizing 1-parameter subgroup for toric rational curves with one unibranch singularity

Kempf proved that when a point is unstable in the sense of Geometric Invariant Theory, there is a ``worst'' destabilizing 1-parameter subgroup $λ^{*}$. It is natural to ask: what are the worst 1-PS for the unstable points in the GIT problems used to construct the moduli space of curves $\overline{M}_g$? Here we consider Chow points of toric rational curves with one unibranch singular point. We translate the problem as an explicit problem in convex geometry (finding the closest point on a polyhedral cone to a point outside it). We prove that the worst 1-PS has a combinatorial description that persists once the embedding dimension is sufficiently large, and present some examples.

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arXiv2023

Computation of GIT quotients of semisimple groups

We describe three algorithms to determine the stable, semistable, and torus-polystable loci of the GIT quotient of a projective variety by a reductive group. The algorithms are efficient when the group is semisimple. By using an implementation of our algorithms for simple groups, we provide several applications to the moduli theory of algebraic varieties, including the K-moduli of algebraic varieties, the moduli of algebraic curves and the Mukai models of the moduli space of curves for low genus. We also discuss a number of potential improvements and some natural open problems arising from this work.

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arXiv2023

Some singular curves in Mukai's model of $\overline{M}_7$

Mukai showed that the GIT quotient $\operatorname{Gr}(7,16) /\!/ \operatorname{Spin}(10)$ is a birational model of the moduli space of Deligne-Mumford stable genus 7 curves $\overline{M}_7$. The key observation is that a general smooth genus 7 curve can be realized as the intersection of the orthogonal Grassmannian $\operatorname{OG}(5,10)$ in $\mathbb{P}^{15}$ with a six-dimensional projective linear subspace. What objects appear on the boundary of Mukai's model? As a first step in this study, computer calculations in Macaulay2, Magma, and Sage are used to find and analyze linear spaces yielding three examples of singular curves: a 7-cuspidal curve, the balanced ribbon of genus 7, and a family of genus 7 reducible nodal curves. $\operatorname{Spin}(10)$-semistability is established by constructing and evaluating an invariant polynomial.

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arXiv2017

On the $S_n$-invariant F-conjecture

By using classical invariant theory, we reduce the $S_{n}$-invariant F-conjecture to a feasibility problem in polyhedral geometry. We show by computer that for $n \le 19$, every integral $S_{n}$-invariant F-nef divisor on the moduli space of genus zero stable pointed curves is semi-ample, over arbitrary characteristic. Furthermore, for $n \le 16$, we show that for every integral $S_{n}$-invariant nef (resp. ample) divisor $D$ on the moduli space, $2D$ is base-point-free (resp. very ample). As applications, we obtain the nef cone of the moduli space of stable curves without marked points, and the semi-ample cone that of the moduli space of genus 0 stable maps to Grassmannian for small numerical values.

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arXiv2016

Equations of Riemann surfaces with automorphisms

We present an algorithm for computing equations of canonically embedded Riemann surfaces with automorphisms. A variant of this algorithm with many heuristic improvements is used to produce equations of Riemann surfaces $X$ with large automorphism groups (that is, $|\mathrm{Aut}(X)| > 4(g_X-1)$) for genus $4 \leq g_X \leq 7$. The main tools are the Eichler trace formula for the character of the action of $\mathrm{Aut}(X)$ on holomorphic differentials, algorithms for producing matrix generators of a representation of a finite group with a specified irreducible character, and Gröbner basis techniques for computing flattening stratifications.

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arXiv2014

Effective curves on $\overline{M}_{0,n}$ from group actions

We study new effective curve classes on the moduli space of stable pointed rational curves given by the fixed loci of subgroups of the permutation group action. We compute their numerical classes and provide a strategy for writing them as effective linear combinations of F-curves, using Losev-Manin spaces and toric degeneration of curve classes.

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arXiv2014

Toward GIT stability of syzygies of canonical curves

We introduce the problem of GIT stability for syzygy points of canonical curves with a view toward a GIT construction of the canonical model of the moduli space of stable curves. As the first step in this direction, we prove semi-stability of the first syzygy point for a general canonical curve of odd genus.

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arXiv2013

Can you play a fair game of craps with a loaded pair of dice?

We study, in various special cases, total distributions on the product of a finite collection of finite probability spaces and, in particular, the question of when the probability distribution of each factor space is determined by the total distribution.

math.HO↗
arXiv2012

Veronese quotient models of $\bar{M}_{0,n}$ and conformal blocks

The moduli space $\bar{M}_{0,n}$ of Deligne-Mumford stable n-pointed rational curves admits morphisms to spaces recently constructed by Giansiracusa, Jensen, and Moon that we call Veronese quotients. We study divisors on $\bar{M}_{0,n}$ associated to these maps and show that these divisors arise as first Chern classes of vector bundles of conformal blocks.

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arXiv2011

$sl_2$ conformal block divisors and the nef cone of $\bar{M}_{0,n}$

We show that $sl_2$ conformal block divisors do not cover the nef cone of $\bar{M}_{0,6}$, or the $S_9$-invariant nef cone of $\bar{M}_{0,9}$. A key point is to relate the nonvanishing of intersection numbers between these divisors and F-curves to the nonemptiness of some explicitly defined polytopes. Several experimental results and some open problems are also included.

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arXiv2011

Nef divisors on $\bar{M}_{0,n}$ from GIT

We introduce and study the GIT CONE of $\bar{M}_{0,n}$, which is generated by the pullbacks of the natural ample line bundles on the GIT quotients $(\mathbb P^1)^n//SL(2)$. We give an explicit formula for these line bundles and prove a number of basic results about the GIT cone. As one application, we prove unconditionally that the log canonical models of $\bar{M}_{0,n}$ with a symmetric boundary divisor coincide with the moduli spaces of weighted curves or with the symmetric GIT quotient, extending the result of Matt Simpson arXiv:0709.4037. (Cf. also a different proof by Fedorchuk and Smyth arXiv:0810.1677)

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arXiv2010

$sl_n$ level 1 conformal blocks divisors on $\bar{M}_{0,n}$

We study a family of semiample divisors on the moduli space $\bar{M}_{0,n}$ that come from the theory of conformal blocks for the Lie algebra $sl_n$ and level 1. The divisors we study are invariant under the action of $S_n$ on $\bar{M}_{0,n}$. We compute their classes and prove that they generate extremal rays in the cone of symmetric nef divisors on $\bar{M}_{0,n}$. In particular, these divisors define birational contractions of $\bar{M}_{0,n}$, which we show factor through reduction morphisms to moduli spaces of weighted pointed curves defined by Hassett.

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arXiv2009

Groebner techniques for low degree Hilbert stability

We give a method for verifying, by a symbolic calculation, the stability or semistability with respect to a linearization of fixed, possibly small, degree $m$, of the Hilbert point of a scheme $X \in {\mathbb P}(V)$ having a suitably large automorphism group. We also implement our method and apply it to analyze the stability of bicanonical models of certain curves. Our examples are very special, but they arise naturally in the log minimal model program for $\bar{\mathcal M}_g$. In some examples, this connection provides a check of our computations; in others, the computations confirm predictions about conjectural stages of the program.

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arXiv2008

GIT stability of weighted pointed curves

Here I give a direct proof that smooth curves with distinct marked points are asymptotically Hilbert stable with respect to a wide range of parameter spaces and linearizations. This result can be used to construct the coarse moduli space of Deligne-Mumford stable pointed curves \bar M_g,n and Hassett's moduli spaces of weighted pointed curves \bar M_g,A (though the full construction of the moduli spaces is not contained in this paper, only the stability proof). My proof follows Gieseker's approach to reduce to the GIT problem to a combinatorial problem, though the solution is very different. The action of any 1-PS lambda on a curve C in P^N gives rise to weighted filtrations of H^0 (C, O(1)) and H^0 (C, O(m)), and I give a recipe in terms of the combinatorics of the base loci of the stages of these filtrations for showing that C is stable with respect to lambda.

math.AG↗
arXiv2007

A geometric invariant theory construction of moduli spaces of stable maps

We construct the moduli spaces of stable maps, \bar M_g,n(P^r,d), via geometric invariant theory (GIT). This construction is only valid over Spec C, but a special case is a GIT presentation of the moduli space of stable curves of genus g with n marked points, \bar M_g,n; this is valid over Spec Z. Our method follows that used in the case n=0 by Gieseker to construct \bar M_g, though our proof that the semistable set is nonempty is entirely different.

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