Hannah Larson, September 3, 2020

Title Brill--Noether theory over the Hurwitz space

Abstract: Let C be a curve of genus g. A fundamental problem in the theory of algebraic curves is to understand maps of C to projective space of dimension r of degree d. When the curve C is general, the moduli space of such maps is well-understood by the main theorems of Brill-Noether theory. However, in nature, curves C are often encountered already equipped with a map to some projective space, which may force them to be special in moduli. The simplest case is when C is general among curves of fixed gonality. Despite much study over the past three decades, a similarly complete picture has proved elusive in this case. In this talk, I will discuss recent joint work with Eric Larson and Isabel Vogt that completes such a picture, by proving analogs of all of the main theorems of Brill--Noether theory in this setting.

There will be a pretalk by Eric Larson on limit linear series at 1:30pm EDT. The main talk will begin at 2:10pm EDT.

Video of talk