Irreducible components of special loci in moduli spaces of curves, Galois action in general genus (Q748358): Difference between revisions

For nonnegative integers \(g, m\) satisfying \(2g - 2 + m > 0\), let \({\mathcal M}_{g, [m]}\) denote the moduli space of proper smooth (algebraic) curves of genus \(g\) with \(m\) unordered marked points. Since \({\mathcal M}_{g, [m]}\) has a natural stack structure defined over the field \({\mathbb Q}\) of rational numbers, its algebraic (étale) fundamental group \(\pi_{1}^{\text{ét}} ({\mathcal M}_{g, [m]} \otimes \overline{\mathbb Q})\) (at a certain base point) has the action of the absolute Galois group \(G_{\mathbb Q} =\mathrm{Gal} (\overline{\mathbb Q}/{\mathbb Q})\) which is the automorphism group of the algebraic closure \(\overline{\mathbb Q}\) of \({\mathbb Q}\). This Galois action was studied by A. Grothendieck, V. Drinfel'd, Y. Ihara, H. Nakamura and others as the Grothendieck-Teichmüller theory which is concerned with motivic properties of the topological fundamental group of \({\mathcal M}_{g, [m]}\). A basic fact shown by them states that the action of \(\sigma \in G_{\mathbb Q}\) on a Dehn twist \(\delta\) satisfies that \(\sigma(\delta)\) is conjugate to \(\delta^{\chi(\sigma)}\), where \(\chi\) denotes the cyclotomic character \(\chi\) on \(G_{\mathbb Q}\) defined as \(\sigma(\zeta) = \zeta^{\chi(\sigma)}\) for all roots \(\zeta \in \overline{\mathbb Q}\) of \(1\). In the present paper, the authors study the action of \(G_{\mathbb Q}\) on \(\pi_{1}^{\text{ét}} ({\mathcal M}_{g, [m]} \otimes \overline{\mathbb Q}, \bar{x})\) for a geometric point \(\bar{x} : \mathrm{Spec} (\overline{\mathbb Q}) \rightarrow {\mathcal M}_{g, [m]}\) by using a \({\mathbb Q}\)-rational tangential base point \(\vec{s}\) corresponding to a maximally degenerate curve and a path between \(\vec{s}\) and \(\bar{x}\). Let \(I_{\bar{x}}\) be the stack inertia group of \(\bar{x}\) which is isomorphic to the automorphism (finite) group of the curve corresponding to \(\bar{x}\). As an analogy of the above fact, the main result of this paper (Theorems A and 4.8) states that if \(I_{\bar{x}}\) is cyclic, then \(\sigma(\gamma)\) is conjugate to \(\gamma^{\chi(\sigma)}\) for any \(\sigma \in G_{\mathbb Q}\) and \(\gamma \in I_{\bar{x}}\) which extends a similar result of the authors in [Ann. Inst. Fourier (Grenoble) 65, 245--276 (2015; Zbl 1326.11069)] under the assumption that \(I_{\bar{x}}\) has no étale factorization property. In the present paper, the authors remove this assumption by comparing \(G_{\mathbb Q}\)-actions associated with Knudsen's clutching morphisms between the moduli spaces of stable curves.