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Main Author: Nisse, Mounir
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.04430
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author Nisse, Mounir
author_facet Nisse, Mounir
contents We introduce and study the maximal-variation locus in families and moduli spaces of projective curves, defined via conductor-level balancing of meromorphic differentials on the normalization. This notion captures precisely when the space of canonical differentials behaves with the expected dimension under degeneration. We prove semicontinuity and openness results showing that maximal variation is stable in flat families, identify a natural determinantal degeneracy locus where maximal variation fails, and establish that this failure is governed entirely by the presence of non-Gorenstein singularities. In particular, all smooth and nodal curves satisfy maximal variation, while every non-Gorenstein singularity contributes explicitly and additively to degeneracy. We compute the expected codimension of degeneracy loci, describe their closure and adjacency relations in moduli, and explain how non-Gorenstein defects give rise to additional Hodge-theoretic phenomena in degenerations. This framework provides a uniform, intrinsic, and deformation-theoretically meaningful classification of degeneracy in spaces of canonical differentials.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_04430
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Maximal Variation in the Moduli of Curves
Nisse, Mounir
Algebraic Geometry
14B05, 14B10, 32G20, 14B07
We introduce and study the maximal-variation locus in families and moduli spaces of projective curves, defined via conductor-level balancing of meromorphic differentials on the normalization. This notion captures precisely when the space of canonical differentials behaves with the expected dimension under degeneration. We prove semicontinuity and openness results showing that maximal variation is stable in flat families, identify a natural determinantal degeneracy locus where maximal variation fails, and establish that this failure is governed entirely by the presence of non-Gorenstein singularities. In particular, all smooth and nodal curves satisfy maximal variation, while every non-Gorenstein singularity contributes explicitly and additively to degeneracy. We compute the expected codimension of degeneracy loci, describe their closure and adjacency relations in moduli, and explain how non-Gorenstein defects give rise to additional Hodge-theoretic phenomena in degenerations. This framework provides a uniform, intrinsic, and deformation-theoretically meaningful classification of degeneracy in spaces of canonical differentials.
title Maximal Variation in the Moduli of Curves
topic Algebraic Geometry
14B05, 14B10, 32G20, 14B07
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.04430