On the locus of smooth plane curves with a fixed automorphism group (Q350247)

Let \(K\) be an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. If \(g \geq 3\), then the singular locus of the moduli space \(M_{g}\) of smooth genus \(g\) curves over \(K\) consists of those (isomorphism classes of) curves with non-trivial group of automorphisms. It is well known that every finite group \(G\) acts as a group of automorphisms on some curve of some genus. The locus \(M_{g}(G)\) consists of those curves in \(M_{g}\) admitting \(G\) as group of automorphisms (which might be empty) and \(\widetilde{M_{g}(G)}\) its sublocus consisting of those curves for which \(G\) is isomorphic to the full group of automorphisms of them. Inside \(M_{g}\) is another locus \(M_{g}^{Pl}\) consisting of those curves being isomorphic to smooth genus \(g\) plane curves (such plane curves have degree \(d\) so that \(g=(d-1)(d-2)/2\)). It is known that for \(g=3\) these two loci coincide, but this is not the case for higher genus. In this article, the authors provide a study on the irreducibility of \(\widetilde{M_{g}^{Pl}(G)}=\widetilde{M_{g}(G)} \cap M_{g}^{Pl}\) and normal forms of degree \(d\) smooth plane curves. At the level of plane curves, two plane curves are equivalent if one if the image of the other by a suitable transformation in \(\text{PGL}_{3}(K)\). Using this equivalence, there is the concept of ES-irreducibility for \(\widetilde{M_{g}^{Pl}(G)}\) (the number of ES-irreducible components is essentially the number of actions of \(G\) up to \(\text{PGL}_{3}(K)\)-conjugacy). The authors prove that, for \(d \geq 5\) odd, the locus \(\widetilde{M_{g}^{Pl}({\mathbb Z}/(d-1){\mathbb Z})}\) is not ES-irreducible and that this locus has at least two irreducible components (this fact was previously known for \(d=5\)). A similar result is obtained for \(d=6\) and \(G={\mathbb Z}/3{\mathbb Z}\). The authors provide similar results in positive characteristic \(p>(d-1)(d-2)+1\).