Compactified Picard stacks over the moduli stack of stable curves with marked points (Q610692)

Let \(k\) be an algebraically closed field and let \({\mathcal Pic}_{d,g,n}\) be the universal Picard stack parametrizing families of \(n\)-pointed smooth curves of genus \(g\) over \(k\) endowed with line bundles of relative degree \(d\). Let \({\overline{\mathcal M}}_{g,n}\) be the moduli stack of stable curves of genus \(g\) with \(n\) marked (smooth) points. In the paper under review, which is part of the author's Ph. D. thesis under the direction of L. Caporaso, one constructs an algebraic (Artin) stack \({\overline {\mathcal P}}_{d,g,n}\) with a universally closed map onto \({\overline{\mathcal M}}_{g,n}\), containing \({\mathcal Pic}_{d,g,n}\) as a dense open substack. This construction extends the results of \textit{L. Caporaso} [Am. J. Math. 130, No. 1, 1--47 (2008; Zbl 1155.14023)] who considered the case \(n = 0\) and \((d-g+1,2g-2) = 1\), and of the author herself [Math. Z. 263, No. 4, 939--957 (2009; Zbl 1183.14039)] who considered the case \(n = 0\) and \(d\) arbitrary. The strategy of construction is to start with the case \(n = 0\) and to construct \({\overline {\mathcal P}}_{d,g,n}\) by induction on the number \(n\) of marked points, following the lines of \textit{F. Knudsen}'s construction of \({\overline{\mathcal M}}_{g,n}\) from [Math. Scand. 52, No. 2, 161--199 (1983; Zbl 0544.14020)]. To be more precise, \({\overline {\mathcal P}}_{d,g,n}\) is, by definition, the stack parametrizing families of genus \(g\) \(n\)-pointed \textit{quasistable} curves endowed with a relative degree \(d\) \textit{balanced} line bundle. The notion of \(n\)-pointed quasistable curve generalizes the notion of quasistable curve (which is a semistable curve such that two exceptional components never meet). The notion of balanced line bundle on an \(n\)-pointed quasistable curve extends the notion of balanced line bundle on a quasistable curve introduced by \textit{L. Caporaso} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 7, No. 3, 589--660 (1994; Zbl 0827.14014)] inspired by the ``Basic Inequalities'' of \textit{D. Gieseker} [Lectures on moduli of curves (Lectures on Mathematics and Physics. Mathematics, 69. Tata Institute of Fundamental Resarch, Bombay. Springer, Berlin-Heidelberg-New York) (1982; Zbl 0534.14012)]. The main result of the paper asserts that \({\overline {\mathcal P}}_{d,g,n}\) is a smooth and irreducible (Artin) stack of dimension \(4g - 3 + n\) endowed with a universally closed morphism onto \({\overline{\mathcal M}}_{g,n}\). The author reduces the proof of this result to the following statement: for all \(d \in {\mathbb Z}\) and \(n > 0\) with \(2g -2 + n > 1\), \({\overline {\mathcal P}}_{d,g,n}\) is isomorphic to the universal family over \({\overline {\mathcal P}}_{d,g,n-1}\). The main technical ingredients in the proof of the last statement are a criterion of normal generation for line bundles over \(n\)-pointed semistable curves and a generalization of Knudsen's notion of \textit{contraction} of families of nodal curves.