Fundamental groups of moduli stacks of stable curves of compact type (Q1006126)

In the paper under review, the author studies the topological and algebraic fundamental groups of the moduli stack \(\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}\) of \(n\)-pointed genus \(g\) stable complex curves of compact type satisfying \(2g-2+n>0\). He shows in particular that the topological fundamental groups are linear, extending all \(n\geq 0\) results obtained by Morita and Hain for \(g\geq 2\) and \(n=0,1\). He also describes the abelianization of the Torelli group \(\mathcal{M}_{g,n}\), completing the results obtained by Johnson and by Mess for closed and once-punctured surfaces. The author also proves that a connected finite étale cover \(\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}^{\lambda}\) of \(\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}\), for \(g\geq 2\), has a Deligne-Mumford compactification with finite fundamental group.