Moduli spaces of weighted pointed stable rational curves via GIT (Q663541)

Let \(\bar M_{0,n\cdot \epsilon}\) be the moduli space of weighted pointed stable rational curves with symmetric weights \(n\cdot \epsilon = (\epsilon, \ldots, \epsilon)\) (see [\textit{B. Hassett}, Adv. Math. 173, No. 2, 316--352 (2003; Zbl 1072.14014)]). In the paper under review the authors reconstruct \(\bar M_{0,n\cdot \epsilon}\) as the GIT quotient of the moduli space of degree one weighted pointed stable maps to \(\mathbb P^1\). They also exhibit a sequence of blow-ups from \(\bar M_{0,n}\) to the GIT quotient and describe explicitly the center for each blow-up. As an application, the authors can identify \(\bar M_{0,n\cdot \epsilon}\) as intermediate models that appear in the log canonical model program for \(\bar M_{0,n}\), which was first proved by \textit{M. Simpson} [``On log canonical models of the moduli space of stable pointed curves'', \url{arXiv:0709.4037}] assuming Fulton's conjecture, and later proved unconditionally by \textit{M. Fedorchuk} and \textit{D. I. Smyth} [J. Algebr. Geom. 20, No. 4, 599--629 (2011; Zbl 1230.14034)] and by \textit{V. Alexeev} and \textit{D. Swinarski} [``Nef divisors on \(bar{M}_{0,n}\) from GIT'', \url{arXiv:0812.0778}].