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Ravi Vakil

Publications and source records attributed to Ravi Vakil.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2009

The ideal of relations for the ring of invariants of n points on the line: integrality results

Consider the projective coordinate ring of the GIT quotient (P^1)^n//SL(2), with the usual linearization, where n is even. In 1894, Kempe proved that this ring is generated in degree one. In [HMSV2] we showed that, over the rationals, the relations between degree one invariants are generated by a class of quadratic relations -- the simplest binomial relations -- with the exception of n=6, where there is a single cubic relation. The purpose of this paper is to show that these results hold over Z[1/12!], and to suggest why they may be true over Z[1/6].

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arXiv2009

The relations among invariants of points on the projective line

We consider the ring of invariants of n points on the projective line. The space (P^1)^n // PGL_2 is perhaps the first nontrivial example of a Geometry Invariant Theory quotient. The construction depends on the weighting of the n points. Kempe discovered a beautiful set of generators (at least in the case of unit weights) in 1894. We describe the full ideal of relations for all possible weightings. In some sense, there is only one equation, which is quadric except for the classical case of the Segre cubic primal, for n=6 and weight 1^6. The cases of up to 6 points are long known to relate to beautiful familiar geometry. The case of 8 points turns out to be richer still.

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arXiv2008

The ring of projective invariants of eight points on the line via representation theory

The ring of projective invariants of eight ordered points on the line is a quotient of the polynomial ring on V, where V is a fourteen-dimensional representation of S_8, by an ideal I_8, so the modular fivefold (P^1)^8 // GL(2) is Proj(Sym* (V)/I_8). We show that there is a unique cubic hypersurface S in PV whose equation s is skew-invariant, and that the singular locus of S is the modular fivefold. In particular, over Z[1/3], the modular fivefold is cut out by the 14 partial derivatives of s. Better: these equations generate I_8. In characteristic 3, the cubic s is needed to generate the ideal. The existence of such a cubic was predicted by Dolgachev. Over Q, we recover the 14 quadrics found by computer calculation by Koike, and our approach yields a conceptual representation-theoretic description of the presentation. Additionally we find the graded Betti numbers of a minimal free resolution in any characteristic. The proof over Q is by pure thought, using Lie theory and commutative algebra. Over Z, the assistance of a computer was necessary. This result will be used as the base case describing the equations of the moduli space of an arbitrary number of points on P^1, with arbitrary weighting, in a later paper, completing the program of our previous paper (Duke Math. J.). The modular fivefold, and corresponding ring, are known to have a number of special incarnations, due to Deligne-Mostow, Kondo, and Freitag-Salvati Manni, for example as ball quotients or ring of modular forms respectively.

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arXiv2007

Absolute Galois acts faithfully on the components of the moduli space of surfaces: A Belyi-type theorem in higher dimension

Given an object over the algebraic closure Qbar of Q, there is often no reason for invariants of the corresponding holomorphic object to be preserved by the absolute Galois group Gal(Qbar/Q), and in general this is not true, although it is sometimes surprising to observe in practice. The case of covers of the projective line branched only over the points 0, 1, and infinity, through Belyi's theorem, leads to Grothendieck's dessins d'enfants program for understanding the absolute Galois group through its faithful action on such covers. This note is motivated by Catanese's question about a higher-dimensional analogue: does the absolute Galois group act faithfully on the deformation equivalence classes of smooth surfaces? (These equivalence classes are of course by definition the strongest deformation invariants.) We give a short proof of a weaker result: the absolute Galois group acts faithfully on the irreducible components of the moduli space of smooth surfaces (of general type, canonically polarized). Bauer, Catanese, and Grunewald have recently answered Catanese's original question using a different construction.

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arXiv2007

A Desingularization of the Main Component of the Moduli Space of Genus-One Stable Maps into $\Bbb{P}^n$

We construct a desingularization of the ``main component'' $\bar{\mathfrak M}_{1,k}^0(\Bbb{P}^n,d)$ of the moduli space $\bar{\mathfrak M}_{1,k}(\Bbb{P}^n,d)$ of genus-one stable maps into the complex projective space $\Bbb{P}^n$. As a bonus, we obtain desingularizations of certain natural sheaves over $\bar{\mathfrak M}_{1,k}^0(\Bbb{P}^n,d)$. Such desingularizations are useful for integrating natural cohomology classes on $\bar{\mathfrak M}_{1,k}^0(\Bbb{P}^n,d)$ using localization. In turn, these classes can be used to compute the genus-one Gromov-Witten invariants of complete intersections and classical enumerative invariants of projective spaces involving genus-one curves. The desingularization of $\bar{\mathfrak M}_{1,k}^0(\Bbb{P}^n,d)$ is obtained by sequentially blowing up $\bar{\mathfrak M}_{1,k}(\Bbb{P}^n,d)$ along ``bad'' subvarieties. At the end of the process, we are left with a modification of the main component, which turns out to be nonsingular.

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arXiv2006

The moduli space of curves, double Hurwitz numbers, and Faber's intersection number conjecture

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 elsewhere. Degeneration of the target and judicious localization expresses such classes in terms of localization trees weighted by ``top intersections'' of tautological classes and genus 0 double Hurwitz numbers. This identity of generating series can be inverted, yielding a ``combinatorialization'' of top intersections of psi-classes. As genus 0 double Hurwitz numbers with at most 3 parts over infinity are well understood, we obtain Faber's Intersection Number Conjecture for up to 3 parts, and an approach to the Conjecture in general (bypassing the Virasoro Conjecture). We also recover other geometric results in a unified manner, including Looijenga's theorem, the socle theorem for curves with rational tails, and the hyperelliptic locus in terms of kappa_{g-2}.

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arXiv2006

The projective invariants of ordered points on the line

The space of n (ordered) points on the projective line, modulo automorphisms of the line, is one of the most important and classical examples of an invariant theory quotient, and is one of the first examples given in any course. Generators for the ring of invariants have been known since the end of the nineteenth century, but the question of the relations has remained surprisingly open, and it was not even known that the relations have bounded degree. We show that the ideal of relations is generated in degree at most four, and give an explicit description of the generators. The result holds for arbitrary weighting of the points. If all the weights are even (e.g. in the case of equal weight for odd n), we show that the ideal of relations is generated by quadrics. The proof is by degenerating the moduli space to a toric variety, and following an enlarged set of generators through this degeneration.

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arXiv2006

The moduli space of n points on the line is cut out by simple quadrics when n is not six

A central question in invariant theory is that of determining the relations among invariants. Geometric invariant theory quotients come with a natural ample line bundle, and hence often a natural projective embedding. This question translates to determining the equations of the moduli space under this embedding. This note deals with one of the most classical quotients, the space of ordered points on the projective line. We show that under any linearization, this quotient is cut out (scheme-theoretically) by a particularly simple set of quadric relations, with the single exception of the Segre cubic threefold (the space of six points with equal weight). Unlike many facts in geometric invariant theory, these results (at least for the stable locus) are field-independent, and indeed work over the integers.

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arXiv2006

A natural smooth compactification of the space of elliptic curves in projective space

The space of smooth genus 0 curves in projective space has a natural smooth compactification: the moduli space of stable maps, which may be seen as the generalization of the classical space of complete conics. In arbitrary genus, no such natural smooth model is expected, as the space satisfies ``Murphy's Law''. In genus 1, however, the situation remains beautiful. We give a natural smooth compactification of the space of elliptic curves in projective space, and describe some of its properties. This space is a blow up of the space of stable maps. It can be interpreted as blowing up the most singular locus first, then the next most singular, and so on, but with a twist -- these loci are often entire components of the moduli space. We give a number of applications in enumerative geometry and Gromov-Witten theory. The proof that this construction indeed gives a desingularization will appear in math.AG/0603353v2 (currently under revision).

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arXiv2006

A short proof of the lambda_g-conjecture without Gromov-Witten theory: Hurwitz theory and the moduli of curves

We give a short and direct proof of the $λ_g$-Conjecture. The approach is through the Ekedahl-Lando-Shapiro-Vainshtein theorem, which establishes the ``polynomiality'' of Hurwitz numbers, from which we pick off the lowest degree terms. The proof is independent of Gromov-Witten theory. We briefly describe the philosophy behind our general approach to intersection numbers and how it may be extended to other intersection number conjectures.

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arXiv2006

The moduli space of curves and Gromov-Witten theory

The goal of this article is to motivate and describe how Gromov-Witten theory can and has provided tools to understand the moduli space of curves. For example, ideas and methods from Gromov-Witten theory have led to both conjectures and theorems showing that the tautological part of the cohomology ring has a remarkable and profound structure. As an illustration, we describe a new approach to Faber's intersection number conjecture via branched covers of the projective line (work with I.P. Goulden and D.M. Jackson, based on work with T. Graber). En route we review the work of a large number of mathematicians.

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arXiv2005

Relative virtual localization and vanishing of tautological classes on moduli spaces of curves

We prove a localization formula for the moduli space of stable relative maps. As an application, we prove that all codimension i tautological classes on the moduli space of stable pointed curves vanish away from strata corresponding to curves with at least i-g+1 genus 0 components. (The proof of this result is quite short and naive.) As consequences, we prove and generalize various conjectures and theorems about various moduli spaces of curves (due to Getzler, Ionel, Faber, Looijenga, Pandharipande, Diaz, and others). This theorem appears to be the geometric content behind these results; the rest is straightforward graph combinatorics. The theorem also suggests the importance of the stratification of the moduli space by number of rational components.

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arXiv2005

Intersections of Schubert varieties and other permutation array schemes

Using a blend of combinatorics and geometry, we give an algorithm for algebraically finding all flags in any zero-dimensional intersection of Schubert varieties with respect to three transverse flags, and more generally, any number of flags. In particular, the number of flags in a triple intersection is also a structure constant for the cohomology ring of the flag manifold. Our algorithm is based on solving a limited number of determinantal equations for each intersection (far fewer than the naive approach). These equations may be used to compute Galois and monodromy groups of intersections of Schubert varieties. We are able to limit the number of equations by using the permutation arrays of Eriksson and Linusson, and their permutation array varieties, introduced as generalizations of Schubert varieties. We show that there exists a unique permutation array corresponding to each realizable Schubert problem and give a simple recurrence to compute the corresponding rank table, giving in particular a simple criterion for a Littlewood-Richardson coefficient to be 0. We describe pathologies of Eriksson and Linusson's permutation array varieties (failure of existence, irreducibility, equidimensionality, and reducedness of equations), and define the more natural permutation array schemes. In particular, we give several counterexamples to the Realizability Conjecture based on classical projective geometry. Finally, we give examples where Galois/monodromy groups experimentally appear to be smaller than expected.

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arXiv2004

Murphy's Law in algebraic geometry: Badly-behaved deformation spaces

We consider the question: ``How bad can the deformation space of an object be?'' The answer seems to be: ``Unless there is some a priori reason otherwise, the deformation space may be as bad as possible.'' We show this for a number of important moduli spaces. More precisely, every singularity of finite type over Z (up to smooth parameters) appears on: the Hilbert scheme of curves in projective space; and the moduli spaces of smooth projective general-type surfaces (or higher-dimensional varieties), plane curves with nodes and cusps, stable sheaves, isolated threefold singularities, and more. The objects themselves are not pathological, and are in fact as nice as can be: the curves are smooth, the surfaces have very ample canonical bundle, the stable sheaves are torsion-free of rank 1, the singularities are normal and Cohen-Macaulay, etc. This justifies Mumford's philosophy that even moduli spaces of well-behaved objects should be arbitrarily bad unless there is an a priori reason otherwise. Thus one can construct a smooth curve in projective space whose deformation space has any given number of components, each with any given singularity type, with any given non-reduced behavior along various associated subschemes. Similarly one can give a surface over F_p that lifts to Z/p^7 but not Z/p^8. (Of course the results hold in the holomorphic category as well.) It is usually difficult to compute deformation spaces directly from obstruction theories. We circumvent this by relating them to more tractable deformation spaces via smooth morphisms. The essential starting point is Mnev's Universality Theorem.

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arXiv2004

The affine stratification number and the moduli space of curves

We define the affine stratification number asn X of a scheme X. For X equidimensional, it is the minimal number k such that there is a stratification of X by locally closed affine subschemes of codimension at most k. We show that the affine stratification number is well-behaved, and bounds many aspects of the topological complexity of the scheme, such as vanishing of cohomology groups of quasicoherent, constructible, and l-adic sheaves. We explain how to bound asn X in practice. We give a series of conjectures (the first by E. Looijenga) bounding the affine stratification number of various moduli spaces of pointed curves. For example, the philosophy of [GV, Theorem *] yields: the moduli space of genus g, n-pointed complex curves of compact type (resp. with "rational tails") should have the homotopy type of a finite complex of dimension at most 5g-6+2n (resp. 4g-5+2n). This investigation is based on work and questions of Looijenga. One relevant example turns out to be a proper integral variety with no embeddings in a smooth algebraic space. This one-paragraph construction appears to be simpler and more elementary than the earlier examples, due to Horrocks and Nori.

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arXiv2003

Towards the geometry of double Hurwitz numbers

Double Hurwitz numbers count branched covers of the projective line with fixed branch points, with simple branching required over all but two points 0 and infinity, and the branching over 0 and infinity specified by partitions of the degree (with m and n parts respectively). Single Hurwitz numbers have a rich structure, explored by authors in many fields. The ELSV formula relates single Hurwitz numbers to intersection theory on the moduli space of curves, and has led to many consequences. We determine the structure of double Hurwitz numbers using geometry, algebra, and representation theory. Our motivation is geometric: we give strong evidence that double Hurwitz numbers are top intersections on a universal Picard variety. In particular, we prove a piecewise-polynomiality result analogous to that implied by the ELSV formula. In the case m=1 and n is arbitrary, we conjecture an ELSV-type formula, and show it to be true in genus 0 and 1. The corresponding Witten-type correlation function has a better structure than that for single Hurwitz numbers, and it satisfies many geometric properties, such as the string and dilaton equations, and a genus expansion ansatz analogous to that of Itzykson and Zuber. We give a symmetric function description of the double Hurwitz generating series, which leads to explicit formulae for double Hurwitz numbers with given m and n. In the case where m is fixed but not necessarily 1, we prove a topological recursion on the corresponding generating series, which leads to closed-form expressions for double Hurwitz numbers and an analogue of the Goulden-Jackson polynomiality conjecture (an early conjectural variant of the ELSV formula).

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