Stable totally degenerate hyperelliptic curves (Q1333612)

In this paper the notions of properly hyperelliptic curve (p.h.c.) of genus \(g\) and of properly hyperelliptic locus \({\mathcal X}_{2g}\) in the moduli space \(B_{2g}\) of \(2g\)-pointed stable curves of genus 0 are introduced. The author describes \({\mathcal H}_{2g}\) by equations and gives a presentation as successive blow-up of \({\mathcal H}_{2g - 2} \times \mathbb{P}^1\) getting the possibility to calculate Chow groups and Betti numbers (here done for \(g\) up to 4). The author also proves that \(\text{Pic} {\mathcal H}_{2g}\) is a free abelian \(\mathbb{Z}\)-module of rank \(2^{g - 1} + (3^g - 1)/2 - (g - 1) (g + 1) - 2\) and compares p.h.c. with hyperelliptic curves as defined by \textit{J. Harris} and \textit{D. Mumford} [Invent. Math. 67, 23-86 (1982; Zbl 0506.14016)].