Time: Thursday Oct. 11, 10:00-12:00

Speaker: Professor Gerard van der Geer (University of Amsterdam)

Title: "Hurwitz spaces and divisors on moduli spaces of curves"

Abstract: Hurwitz spaces appeared in modern algebraic geometry in the pivotal paper of Harris and Mumford on the Kodaira dimension of M_g. Hurwitz spaces give rise to maps and correspondences between moduli spaces of curves. In this talk we give examples of this and study the induced maps on divisor classes on moduli spaces of curves. We also discuss the Hodge bundle of Hurwitz spaces. This is based on joint work with Alexis Kouvidakis.

Venue: Room 29 at Quan-Zhai (全斋), Beijing International Center for Mathematical Research, Peking University.