Birational contractions of M₀,n and combinatorics of extremal assignments

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Abstract: From Smyth's classification, modular compactifications of pointed smooth rational curves are indexed by combinatorial data, so-called extremal assignments. We explore their combinatorial structures and show that any extremal assignment is a finite union of atomic extremal assignments. We discuss a connection with the birational geometry of the moduli space of stable pointed curves. As applications, we study three special classes of extremal assignments: smooth, toric, and invariant with respect to the symmetric group action. We identify them with three combinatorial objects: simple intersecting families, complete multipartite graphs, and special families of integer partitions, respectively.


In [Invent. Math. 192, No. 2, 459--503 (2013; Zbl 1277.14023)] \textit{D. I. Smyth} defined the so-called extremal assignments to classify modular compactifications of the moduli space of genus \(g\) curves with \(n\) marked points. In this paper the authors explore combinatorial structures of extremal assignments for the case of genus zero, with a connection to the birational geometry of the moduli space of stable pointed rational curves. They also study several special types of extremal assignments, such as smooth, toric, and invariant under the symmetric group action permuting the marked points. An algorithm for finding the smallest extremal assignments is described and implemented as a Sage program.





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