The automorphism group of \(\overline{M}_{0,n}\) (Q1949970)

The main result of this paper is a determination of the automorphism group of the moduli spaces \(\overline{M}_{0,n}\) of marked rational curves. Namely, except for the trivial cases of \(n \leq 4\), the automorphism group is always the symmetric group \(S_n\). This is a remarkable result, and it fits into a beautiful narrative. The space \(\overline{M}_{0,5}\) is a del Pezzo surface, and Dolgachev proved that its automorphism group is \(S_5\) by appealing to combinatorics and representation theory related to root systems, but even this special case is fairly non-trivial. On the other hand, Royden had proven in the early 70s using Teichmüller theory that the moduli space of smooth genus \(g\geq 3\) curves, \(M_g\), has trivial automorphism group. Finally, with the present paper's vast generalization of Dolgachev's result to all \(n \geq 5\), and Royden's aforementioned classical result, and the famous result of \textit{A. Gibney, S. Keel} and \textit{I. Morrison} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 15, No. 2, 273--294 (2002; Zbl 0993.14009)] on fibrations of \(\overline{M}_{g,n}\), \textit{A. Massarenti} [``The automorphisms group of \(\overline{M}_{g,n}\)'', \url{arxiv.org/1110.1464}, to appear in J. Lond. Math. Soc.] was able to conclude the tale by showing that \(\overline{M}_{g,n}\) has automorphism group \(S_n\) except in a few exceptional small genus cases, where the automorphism group is worked out using an explicit construction of the moduli space. The techniques of the present paper have even inspired further work by \textit{A. Massarenti} and \textit{M. Mella} [``On the automorphisms of Hassett's moduli spaces'', \url{arxiv:1307.6828}] on automorphisms of Hassett's weighted variants of these moduli spaces. The idea of the present paper is the following. Given an automorphism of \(\overline{M}_{0,n}\), we can compose it with a forgetful map to \(\overline{M}_{0,n-1}\), say forgetting the \(i^{th}\) point. The key technical result in the paper is that any such dominant morphism is the composition of a forgetful map followed by an automorphism. By recording which point this latter map forgets, say \(j\), we obtain an element of \(S_n\) in this way sending \(i\) to \(j\). This then defines a group homomorphism from \(Aut(\overline{M}_{0,n})\) to \(S_n\). This map is surjective, since the simple transpositions are easily seen to be in the image by appealing to a result of Kapranov on Cremona transformations in his original paper constructing \(\overline{M}_{0,n}\) as an iterated blow-up of \(\mathbb{P}^{n-3}\). The authors then show that the map is also injective. This key technical result in the paper, that any fibration \(\overline{M}_{0,n} \rightarrow \overline{M}_{0,m}\) is a forgetful map composed with an automorphism, is proven entirely using classical projective methods of linear systems in the true Italian spirit of classical algebraic geometry.