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In 1990, Hitchin's proved a component of the space of representations of a surface group in SL(n,R) is homeomorphic to a ball. For n=2,3 this component has been identified with the holonomies of geometric structures (hyperbolic for n=2, or real projective for n=3). In the preprint "Anosov flows, Surface groups and Curves in Projective Space", we extend this interpretation to higher dimension and show every representation in Hitchin's component is attached to a (special) curve in projective space, thus giving a geometric interpretation of these representations. We also prove these representations are faithful, discrete and purely loxodromic (or hyperbolic)

The space of smooth genus 0 curves in projective space has a natural smooth compactification: the moduli space of stable maps, which may be seen as the generalization of the classical space of complete conics. In arbitrary genus, no such natural smooth model is expected, as the space satisfies ``Murphy's Law''. In genus 1, however, the situation remains beautiful. We give a natural smooth compactification of the space of elliptic curves in projective space, and describe some of its properties. This space is a blow up of the space of stable maps. It can be interpreted as blowing up the most singular locus first, then the next most singular, and so on, but with a twist -- these loci are often entire components of the moduli space. We give a number of applications in enumerative geometry and Gromov-Witten theory. The proof that this construction indeed gives a desingularization will appear in math.AG/0603353v2 (currently under revision).

Let $H \subset {\mathbb P}^n$ be a real-analytic subvariety of codimension one induced by a real-analytic curve in the Grassmannian $G(n+1,n)$. Assuming $H$ has a global defining function, we prove $H$ is Levi-flat, the closure of its smooth points of top dimension is a union of complex hyperplanes, and its singular set is either of dimension $2n-2$ or dimension $2n-4$. If the singular set is of dimension $2n-4$, then we show the hypersurface is algebraic and the Levi-foliation extends to a singular holomorphic foliation of ${\mathbb P}^n$ with a meromorphic (rational of degree 1) first integral. In this case, $H$ is in some sense simply a complex cone over an algebraic curve in ${\mathbb P}^1$. Similarly if $H$ has a degenerate singularity, then $H$ is also algebraic. If the dimension of the singular set is $2n-2$ and is nondegenerate, we show by construction that the hypersurface need not be algebraic nor semialgebraic. We construct a Levi-flat real-analytic subvariety in ${\mathbb P}^2$ of real codimension 1 with compact leaves that is not contained in any proper real-algebraic subvariety of ${\mathbb P}^2$. Therefore a straightforward analogue of Chow's theorem for Levi-flat hypersurfaces does not hold.

We survey and expand on the work of Segal, Milgram and the author on the topology of spaces of maps of positive genus curves into $n$-th complex projective space, $n\geq 1$ (in both the holomorphic and continuous categories). Both based and unbased maps are studied and in particular we compute the fundamental groups of the spaces in question. The relevant case when $n=1$ is given by a non-trivial extension which we fully determine.

We prove an effective version of a theorem of Dufresnoy: For any set of 2n+1 hyperplanes in general position in n-dimensional complex projective space, we find an explicit constant K such that for every holomorphic map f from the unit disc to the complement of these hyperplanes, the derivative of f at the origin measured with respect to the Fubuni-Study metric is bouned above by K. This result gives an explicit lower bound on the Royden function, i.e., the ratio of the Kobayashi metric on the hyperplane complement to the Fubini-Study metric. Our estimate is based on the potential-theoretic method of Eremenko and Sodin.

Moduli space of genus zero stable maps to the projective three-space naturally carries a real structure such that the fixed locus is a moduli space for real rational spatial curves with real marked points. The latter is a normal projective real variety. The singular locus being in codimension at least two, a first Stiefel-Whitney class is well defined. In this paper, we determine a representative for the first Stiefel-Whitney class of such real space when the evaluation map is generically finite. This can be done by means of Poincar\'e duals of boundary divisors.

In this paper we prove that, for any $n\ge 3$, there exist infinitely many $r\in \N$ and for each of them a smooth, connected curve $C_r$ in $\P^r$ such that $C_r$ lies on exactly $n$ irreducible components of the Hilbert scheme $\hilb(\P^r)$. This is proven by reducing the problem to an analogous statement for the moduli of surfaces of general type.

This paper is about the family of smooth quartic surfaces $X \subset \PP^{3}$ that are invariant under the Heisenberg group $H_{2,2}$. For a very general such surface $X$, we show that the Picard number of $X$ is 16 and determine its Picard group. It turns out that the general Heisenberg invariant quartic contains 320 smooth conics and that in the very general case, this collection of conics generates the Picard group.

Very few examples of obstructed equsingular families of curves on surfaces other than the projective plane are known. Combining results from Westenberger and Hirano with an idea from math.AG/9802009 we give in the present paper series of examples of families of irreducible curves with simple singularities on surfaces in projective three-space which are not T--smooth, i.e. do not have the expected dimension, and we compare this with conditions (showing the same asymptotics) which ensure the existence of a T--smooth component.

In this paper we consider a generalization of a well known result by Veronese about rational normal curves. More precisely, given a collection of linear spaces in $\PP^n$ we study the existence of rational normal curves intersecting each component of the configuration maximally. We introduce different methods to show existence and non-existence of such curves. We also show how to apply these techniques to the study of defectivity of Segre-Veronese varieties.

We study the geometry of varieties parametrizing degree d rational and elliptic curves in P^n intersecting fixed general linear spaces and tangent to a fixed hyperplane H with fixed multiplicities along fixed general linear subspaces of H. As an application, we derive recursive formulas for the number of such curves when the number is finite. These recursive formulas require as ``seed data'' only one input: there is one line in P^1 through two points. These numbers can be seen as top intersection products of various cycles on the Hilbert scheme of degree d rational or elliptic curves in P^n, or on certain components of $\mbar_0(P^n,d)$ or $\mbar_1(P^n,d)$, and as such give information about the Chow ring (and hence the topology) of these objects. The formula can also be interpreted as an equality in the Chow ring (not necessarily at the top level) of the appropriate Hilbert scheme or space of stable maps. In particular, this gives an algorithm for counting rational and elliptic curves in P^n intersecting various fixed general linear spaces. (The genus 0 numbers were found earlier by Kontsevich-Manin, and the genus 1 numbers were found for n=2 by Ran and Caporaso-Harris, and independently by Getzler for n=3.)

We study families of elliptic curves of degree n+1 in $P^n$ containing a fixed set of m points. In the case m = n+3 we show that this family is birationally isomorphic to a smooth complete intersection of n-2 diagonal quadrics in $P^{n+2}$. We also describe an action of the 2-elementary abelian group $2^{n+2}$ on this family via Cremona transformations in $P^n$.

In math.AG/0108089, math.AG/0212090 and math.AG/0308247 we gave numerical conditions which ensure that an equisingular family is irreducible respectively T-smooth. Combining results by Greuel, Lossen and Shustin and an idea from math.AG/9802009 we give in the present paper series of examples of families of irreducible curves on surfaces in projective three-space with only ordinary multiple points which are reducible and where at least one component does not have the expected dimension. The examples show that for families of curves with ordinary multiple points the conditions for T-smoothness in math.AG/0308247 have the right asymptotics.

The primary goal of this paper is to find a homotopy theoretic approximation to moduli spaces of holomorphic maps Riemann surfaces into complex projective space. There is a similar treatment of a partial compactification of these moduli spaces of consisting of irreducible stable maps in the sense of Gromov-Witten theory. The arguments follow those from a paper of G. Segal on the topology of the space of rational functions.

Yan and Chen proved a weak Cartan-type second main theorem for holomorphic curves meeting hypersurfaces in projective space that included truncated counting functions. Here we give an explicit estimate for the level of truncation.

A point $p$ on a smooth complex projective curve $C$ of genus $g>3$ is subcanonical if the divisor $(2g-2)p$ is canonical. In the moduli space of pointed curves, the subcanonical locus is described by pairs $(C,p)$ as above, and it consists of three irreducible components of dimension $2g-1$. Apart from the hyperelliptic component $\mathcal{G}_g^{hyp}$, the other components $\mathcal{G}_g^{odd}$ and $\mathcal{G}_g^{even}$ depend on the parity of $h^0(C,(g-1)p)$, and their general points satisfy $h^0(C,(g-1)p)=1$ and $2$, respectively. In this paper, we study the subloci of pairs $(C,p)$ such that $h^0(C,(g-1)p)$ is at least $r+1$ and it has the same parity as $r+1$. In particular, we provide a lower bound on their dimension, and we prove its sharpness for $r