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

Birational geometry of the moduli space of rank 2 parabolic vector bundles on a rational curve

We investigate the birational geometry (in the sense of Mori's program) of the moduli space of rank 2 semistable parabolic vector bundles on a rational curve. We compute the effective cone of the moduli space and show that all birational models obtained by Mori's program are also moduli spaces of parabolic vector bundles with certain parabolic weights.Comment: 22 pages, Revised, Published version in International Mathematics Research Notices (2015

Moduli spaces of weighted pointed stable rational curves via GIT

We construct the Mumford-Knudsen space of n pointed stable rational curves by a sequence of explicit blow-ups from the GIT quotient (P^1)^n//SL(2) with respect to the symmetric linearization O(1,...,1). The intermediate blown-up spaces turn out to be the moduli spaces of weighted pointed stable curves for suitable ranges of weights. As an application, we provide a new unconditional proof of M. Simpson's Theorem about the log canonical models of the Mumford-Knudsen space. We also give a basis of the Picard group of the moduli spaces of weighted pointed stable curves.Comment: An error (Lemma 5.3 in v1) has been corrected

GIT Compactifications of M_{0,n} and Flips

We use geometric invariant theory (GIT) to construct a large class of compactifications of the moduli space M_{0,n}. These compactifications include many previously known examples, as well as many new ones. As a consequence of our GIT approach, we exhibit explicit flips and divisorial contractions between these spaces.Comment: Final version to appear in Advance