Maximally symmetric stable curves (Q2470250)

The authors prove the following result: Theorem. The order of the automorphism group of a stable curve of genus \(g\) is less than or equal to \[ 6^g \cdot 2^{N(g)} \cdot \left(\frac{3}{8}\right)^{k(g)} \cdot \left(\frac{1}{2}\right)^{l(g)} \] where \(N(g),k(g)\) and \(l(g)\) are defined as follows: Write \(g\) in binary and, starting from the left-hand side, count pairs of binary digits that start with \(1\), ignoring intermediate \(0\)s. Let \(k(g)\) be the number of \(11\)s, \(l(g)\) the number of \(10\)s and \(N(g)\) equal to \(g\) if there is no unpaired \(1\) or equal to \(g-1\) if there is an unpaired \(1\). The proof is achieved through several reductions: one shows that a stable curve that reaches the bound has only copies of \(\mathbb{P}^1\) and \(E\), the elliptic curve with \(j\)-invariant \(0\). Moreover its dual graph is a tree with all leaves elliptic and other vertices rational. Actually, in a final section, the authors describe all stable curves which reach the bound.