Algebraic Geometry Seminar: Ana-Maria Castravet (Ohio State)

Abstract:

The Mori cone of curves of the Grothendieck-Knudsen moduli space of stable rational curves with n markings, is conjecturally generated by the one-dimensional strata (the so-called F-curves). A result of Keel and McKernan states that a hypothetical counterexample must come from rigid curves that intersect the interior. In this talk I will show several ways of constructing rigid curves. In all the examples a reduction mod p argument shows that the classes of the rigid curves that we construct can be decomposed as sums of F-curves. This is joint work with Jenia Tevelev.