On the cone of effective 2-cycles on M‾0,7\overline{M}_{0,7}

Fulton's question about effective $k$-cycles on $\overline{M}_{0,n}$ for $1<k<n-4$ can be answered negatively by appropriately lifting to $\overline{M}_{0,n}$ the Keel-Vermeire divisors on $\overline{M}_{0,k+1}$. In this paper we focus on the case of $2$-cycles on $\overline{M}_{0,7}$, and we prove that the $2$-dimensional boundary strata together with the lifts of the Keel-Vermeire divisors are not enough to generate the cone of effective $2$-cycles. We do this by providing examples of effective $2$-cycles on $\overline{M}_{0,7}$ that cannot be written as an effective combination of the aforementioned $2$-cycles. These examples are inspired by a blow up construction of Castravet and Tevelev.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures. Final version. Minor corrections. To appear in the European Journal of Mathematic

K3 surfaces with Z22\mathbb{Z}_2^2 symplectic action

Let $G$ be a finite abelian group which acts symplectically on a K3 surface. The N\'eron-Severi lattice of the projective K3 surfaces admitting $G$ symplectic action and with minimal Picard number is computed by Garbagnati and Sarti. We consider a $4$-dimensional family of projective K3 surfaces with $\mathbb{Z}_2^2$ symplectic action which do not fall in the above cases. If $X$ is one of these K3 surfaces, then it arises as the minimal resolution of a specific $\mathbb{Z}_2^3$-cover of $\mathbb{P}^2$ branched along six general lines. We show that the N\'eron-Severi lattice of $X$ with minimal Picard number is generated by $24$ smooth rational curves, and that $X$ specializes to the Kummer surface $\textrm{Km}(E_i\times E_i)$. We relate $X$ to the K3 surfaces given by the minimal resolution of the $\mathbb{Z}_2$-cover of $\mathbb{P}^2$ branched along six general lines, and the corresponding Hirzebruch-Kummer covering of exponent $2$ of $\mathbb{P}^2$.Comment: 24 pages, 6 figures. Final version with minor corrections and additions. To appear in the Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematic

KSBA compactification of the moduli space of K3 surfaces with purely non-symplectic automorphism of order four

We describe a compactification by KSBA stable pairs of the five-dimensional moduli space of K3 surfaces with purely non-symplectic automorphism of order four and $U(2)\oplus D_4^{\oplus2}$ lattice polarization. These K3 surfaces can be realized as the minimal resolution of the double cover of $\mathbb{P}^1\times\mathbb{P}^1$ branched along a specific $(4,4)$ curve. We show that, up to a finite group action, this stable pairs compactification is isomorphic to Kirwan's partial desingularization of the GIT quotient $(\mathbb{P}^1)^8//\mathrm{SL}_2$ with the symmetric linearization.Comment: 26 pages, 6 figures. We explain the connection with Alexeev-Thompson work on ADE surfaces. Comments are welcom

Decomposition of Lagrangian classes on K3 surfaces

We study the decomposability of a Lagrangian homology class on a K3 surface into a sum of classes represented by special Lagrangian submanifolds, and develop criteria for it in terms of lattice theory. As a result, we prove the decomposability on an arbitrary K3 surface with respect to the Kähler classes in dense subsets of the Kähler cone. Using the same technique, we show that the Kähler classes on a K3 surface which admit a special Lagrangian fibration form a dense subset also. This implies that there are infinitely many special Lagrangian 3-tori in any log Calabi-Yau 3-fold.https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.00202Othe

A Pascal's theorem for rational normal curves

Pascal's Theorem gives a synthetic geometric condition for six points $a,\ldots,f$ in $\mathbb{P}^2$ to lie on a conic. Namely, that the intersection points $\overline{ab}\cap\overline{de}$, $\overline{af}\cap\overline{dc}$, $\overline{ef}\cap\overline{bc}$ are aligned. One could ask an analogous question in higher dimension: is there a coordinate-free condition for $d+4$ points in $\mathbb{P}^d$ to lie on a degree $d$ rational normal curve? In this paper we find many of these conditions by writing in the Grassmann-Cayley algebra the defining equations of the parameter space of $d+4$ ordered points in $\mathbb{P}^d$ that lie on a rational normal curve. These equations were introduced and studied in a previous joint work of the authors with Giansiracusa and Moon. We conclude with an application in the case of seven points on a twisted cubic.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure. Comments are welcom

Families of pointed toric varieties and degenerations

The Losev-Manin moduli space parametrizes pointed chains of projective lines. In this paper we study a possible generalization to families of pointed degenerate toric varieties. Geometric properties of these families, such as flatness and reducedness of the fibers, are explored via a combinatorial characterization. We show that such families are described by a specific type of polytope fibration which generalizes the twisted Cayley sums, originally introduced to characterize elementary extremal contractions of fiber type associated to projective $\mathbb{Q}$-factorial toric varieties with positive dual defect. The case of a one-dimensional simplex can be viewed as an alternative construction of the permutohedra.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures. Comments are welcom

Geometric interpretation of toroidal compactifications of moduli of points in the line and cubic surfaces

It is known that some GIT compactifications associated to moduli spaces of either points in the projective line or cubic surfaces are isomorphic to Baily-Borel compactifications of appropriate ball quotients. In this paper, we show that their respective toroidal compactifications are isomorphic to moduli spaces of stable pairs as defined in the context of the MMP. Moreover, we give a precise mixed-Hodge-theoretic interpretation of this isomorphism for the case of eight labeled points in the projective line.Comment: 35 pages. Comments are welcom

The non-degeneracy invariant of Brandhorst and Shimada families of Enriques surfaces

Brandhorst and Shimada described a large class of Enriques surfaces, called $(\tau,\overline{\tau})$-generic, for which they gave generators for the automorphism groups and calculated the elliptic fibrations and the smooth rational curves up to automorphisms. In the present paper, we give lower bounds for the non-degeneracy invariant of such Enriques surfaces, we show that in most cases the invariant has generic value $10$, and we present the first known example of complex Enriques surface with infinite automorphism group and non-degeneracy invariant not equal to $10$.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures. Comments welcome

Unimodal singularities and boundary divisors in the KSBA moduli of a class of Horikawa surfaces

Smooth minimal surfaces of general type with $K^2=1$, $p_g=2$, and $q=0$ constitute a fundamental example in the geography of algebraic surfaces, and the 28-dimensional moduli space $\mathbf{M}$ of their canonical models admits a modular compactification $\bar{\mathbf{M}}$ via the minimal model program. We describe eight new irreducible boundary divisors in such compactification parametrizing reducible stable surfaces. Additionally, we study the relation with the GIT compactification of $\mathbf{M}$ and the Hodge theory of the degenerate surfaces that the eight divisors parametrize.Comment: 40 pages. Comments are welcom