Maps into projective spaces (Q369294)

Let \(K\) be an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero and \(C\) an integal, nodal curve of arithmetic genus \(g\) over \(K\). Assume \(d\geq 2g-1\), \(d \geq 0\) and \(n \geq 2\) for certain integers \(d\) and \(n\). In this article, the author constructs a smooth compactification \(\bar{M}\) of the moduli space \(M\) of morphisms to projective space \(\mathbb{P}^n\) of a fixed degree \(d\) and computes the top intersection number \(c_1(\mathcal{O}_{\bar{M}}(1))^{(n+1)(d+1-g)+g-1}[\bar{M}]\) of a certain Cartier divisor \(X\) in \(M\) to be \((n+1)^g\). where \(g\) is the arithmetic genus of the curve \(C\). The computation of the above result -- which was known in the case of a smooth curve (see \textit{A. Betram, G. Dasklopoulos} and \textit{R. Wentworth} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 9, No. 2, 529--571 (1996; Zbl 0865.14017)]) -- is made possible by the computation of the Chern character of the degree \(d\) Picard bundle on the natural desingularization \(\tilde{J}^d(C)\) of the compactified Jacobian \(\bar{J}^d(C)\) (i.e. the moduli space of degree \(d\) torsion-free sheaves of rank one on \(C\)). Further applications of this result to Brill-Noether loci are also given.