The rationality of the moduli space of genus-4 curves endowed with an order-3 subgroup of their Jacobian (Q621287)

The theory of moduli spaces of curves, both self-standing or endowed with structures, shows a natural pattern. Usually, for large values of the genus \(g\), the spaces have general type. On the contrary, when \(g\) is small, these moduli spaces are often uniruled or even rational. The same situation is expected for moduli spaces \(R_{g,\langle n \rangle}\) of curves \(C\) of genus \(g\), together with a cyclic subgroup of order \(n\) of \(\mathrm{Pic}^0(C)\). Such spaces are a generalization of Prym moduli spaces. For small values of \(g,n\), several results are known in the literature. The authors point their attention to the case \(g=4\). Catanese already proved the rationality of the Prym space \(R_{4,\langle 2 \rangle}\). So, the authors consider the next case \(R=R_{4,\langle 3 \rangle}\), and prove that \(R\) is rational as well. The proof is achieved by using models, for curves of genus \(4\), with an order-\(3\) subgroup of the Jacobian, constructed over smooth cubic surfaces in \(\mathbb P^3\).