Moduli of Prym curves (Q1769041)

This article explores some of the geometrical and combinatorial properties of the compactification \(\overline{R}_{g}\) of the moduli space of curves of genus \(g\) together with an unramified double cover that was constructed by \textit{A. Beauville} [Invent. Math. 41, 149--196 (1977; Zbl 0333.14013)]. Inspired by the construction of the moduli space of spin curves \(\overline{S}_{g}\) given by \textit{M. Cornalba} [in: Proceedings of the college on Riemann surfaces, Trieste 1987, 560--589 (1989; Zbl 0800.14011)], the authors present a description of this scheme which is different from the original one. In order to do this, the authors first give the definition of a {Prym curve} and then put a structure of projective variety on the set \(\overline{Pr}_{g}\) of isomorphism classes of Prym curves of genus \(g\). \(\overline{Pr}_{g}\) has two irreducible components \(\overline{Pr}_{g}^{-}\) and \(\overline{Pr}_{g}^{+}\), where \(\overline{Pr}_{g}^{-}\simeq \overline{M}_{g}\). Furthermore, they give an explicit isomorphism between \(\overline{Pr}_{g}^{+}\) and \(\overline{R}_{g}\) over \(\overline{M}_{g}\). The combinatorics of \(\overline{Pr}_{g}\) is studied in section 3, where a numerical description of the fiber \(Pr_{Z}\) of the morphism \(\overline{Pr}_{g} \to \overline{M}_{g}\) over a point \([Z]\) is given. Using this combinatorial description, the authors conclude that the morphisms \(\overline{Pr}_{g} \to \overline{M}_{g}\) and \(\overline{S}_{g} \to \overline{M}_{g}\) ramify in a different way.