Topological methods in moduli theory (Q887211)

This is a very long survey paper, discussing several topological methods that can be and have been used (for example by the author and his collaborators) for studying moduli spaces of algebraic varieties. The paper starts with a general introduction, including classical results as Zeuthen-Segre and Lefschetz' theorems. It considers classifying spaces, concentrating on some special classes of projective varieties. Local symmetric varieties and Bagnera-De Franchis varieties are discussed. The paper treats in detail some classical topics at a level oriented towards graduate students as orbifold fundamental group, Teichmüller spaces. moduli spaces of curves, group homology. Several concrete moduli spaces are explicitely investigated, including varieties isogenous to a product and Inoue type varieties where the moduli space is determined by the topological type. The author explains the differences among considering small deformations of the minimal model and of the canonical model of a surface of general type, so motivating the choice of most researchers to consider the Gieseker moduli space of the surfaces of general type. In the final part the author consider deformation of symmetry marked varieties. leading, among other applications, to some results on the singular locus of the moduli space of curves and its compactification. One more argument touched is the action of the absolute Galois group \(\mathrm{Gal}(\bar{\mathbb Q},{\mathbb Q})\) on the set of varieties.