On the rigidity of moduli of weighted pointed stable curves (Q1748396)

Let \(A = (a_1, \ldots, a_n)\) be a sequence of rational numbers \(0 < a_i \leq 1\). \textit{B. Hassett} [Adv. Math. 173, No. 2, 316--352 (2003; Zbl 1072.14014)] constructed a moduli stack \(\overline{\mathcal M}_{g, A}\) that compactifies the moduli space \(\mathcal M_{g,n}\) of smooth \(n\)-pointed genus \(g\) curves, by assigning the weight \(a_i\) to the \(i\)th marked point, and the special case \(A = (1, \ldots, 1)\) corresponds to the classical Deligne-Mumford compactification. In this paper the authors study the first order infinitesimal deformations of the moduli stack \(\overline{\mathcal M}_{g, A}\) and its coarse moduli space \(\overline{M}_{g, A}\). The main result shows that if \(g=0\) then \(\overline{M}_{0, A}\) is rigid over any field, if \(g\geq 1\) then \(\overline{\mathcal M}_{g, A}\) is rigid over any field of characteristic zero, and if \(g + n > 4\) then \(\overline{M}_{g, A}\) is rigid over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. The proof builds on techniques developed by the authors in previous work [``On the rigidity of moduli of curves in arbitrary characteristic'', Int. Math. Res. Not. IMRN 2017, No. 8, 2431--2463 (2017)]. Certain degenerations of Hassett spaces and applications to the Segre cubic hypersurface are also discussed.