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

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

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

Compactifications of moduli of points and lines in the projective plane

Projective duality identifies the moduli spaces $\mathbf{B}_n$ and $\mathbf{X}(3,n)$ parametrizing linearly general configurations of $n$ points in $\mathbb{P}^2$ and $n$ lines in the dual $\mathbb{P}^2$, respectively. The space $\mathbf{X}(3,n)$ admits Kapranov's Chow quotient compactification $\overline{\mathbf{X}}(3,n)$, studied also by Lafforgue, Hacking, Keel, Tevelev, and Alexeev, which gives an example of a KSBA moduli space of stable surfaces: it carries a family of certain reducible degenerations of $\mathbb{P}^2$ with $n$ "broken lines". Gerritzen and Piwek proposed a dual perspective, a compact moduli space parametrizing certain reducible degenerations of $\mathbb{P}^2$ with $n$ smooth points. We investigate the relation between these approaches, answering a question of Kapranov from 2003.Comment: 66 pages. Final version. To appear in International Mathematics Research Notice

Point configurations, phylogenetic trees, and dissimilarity vectors

In 2004 Pachter and Speyer introduced the higher dissimilarity maps for phylogenetic trees and asked two important questions about their relation to the tropical Grassmannian. Multiple authors, using independent methods, answered affirmatively the first of these questions, showing that dissimilarity vectors lie on the tropical Grassmannian, but the second question, whether the set of dissimilarity vectors forms a tropical subvariety, remained opened. We resolve this question by showing that the tropical balancing condition fails. However, by replacing the definition of the dissimilarity map with a weighted variant, we show that weighted dissimilarity vectors form a tropical subvariety of the tropical Grassmannian in exactly the way that Pachter--Speyer envisioned. Moreover, we provide a geometric interpretation in terms of configurations of points on rational normal curves and construct a finite tropical basis that yields an explicit characterization of weighted dissimilarity vectors.Comment: Final version. To appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS