Monday, November 26th, 2007
2:30pm - 3:55pm, in Science 2-065

Tawanda Gwena

Tufts University/Georgia Tech

Maps between moduli spaces of vector bundles and base locus of the theta divisor

Abstract: Given a vector bundle $E$ of rank $r$ and degree $d$ on a curve $C$ of genus $g$, one can associate to $E$ in a natural way several other vector bundles. For example, one can take wedge powers of $E$. If $E$ is generated by global sections, the kernel of the evaluation map of sections is again a vector bundle. Also, new vector bundles can be produced by taking elementary transformations centered at a fixed point. Under suitable conditions on degree and rank, these constructions can be carried out globally. While all this processes seem quite elementary, very little is known about the resulting maps. The purpose of this paper is to fill in this gap. Moreover we will show that on the moduli space of semi-stable vector bundles of fixed rank and determinant (of any degree) on a smooth curve of genus at least two, the base locus of the generalized theta divisor is large provided the rank is sufficiently large. It also shows that the base locus is large for positive multiples of the theta divisor. This work extends results already known for the case where the determinant is of degree zero. This is joint work with Sebastian Casalaina-Martin and Montserrat Teixidor i Bigas.