Generating stable modular graphs (Q719749)

Let \(\mathcal{M}_{g,n}\) be the moduli space of smooth \(n\)-marked curves of genus \(g\) and \(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}\) be its Deligne-Mumford compactification, consisting of stable \(n-\)marked curves of genus \(g\). Its boundary \(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}\setminus \mathcal{M}_{g,n}\) has a stratification that depends on the topological type of the curves plus a choice of marked points on its components. The topological type of a stable curve is encoded in a combinatorial object, its stable dual graph. The authors present a program, called \texttt{boundary} [\url{http://people.sissa.it/~maggiolo/boundary/}], that generates all genus \(g\) stable graphs with \(n\) marked points. The two authors describe the algorithm used, and check its correctness. Although the complexity of this algorithm is -- necessarily -- at least exponential, it is extremely useful to prove combinatorial results on the moduli space of pointed stable curves with low genus see [Adv. Geom. 11, 241--272 (2011; Zbl 1216.14034)] and [``Calculating intersection numbers on moduli spaces of pointed curves'', \url{arXiv:0808.1974}].