The geometry of moduli spaces of abelian surfaces

Sorin Popescu (MSRI and Columbia)


I will describe results concerning the rationality/non-rationality of moduli spaces of polarized abelian surfaces, and will also discuss connections to certain classes of Calabi-Yau 3-folds.  The methods used are based on a careful analysis of degenerations and ideas from polytope theory and combinatorics.

Spring 1999  meeting of the PNGS