[Math] What are some examples of coarse moduli spaces

ag.algebraic-geometrycoarse-moduli-spacesstacks

It took me some effort to work out Gerashenko's nice simple example Can a singular Deligne-Mumford stack have a smooth coarse space? of a DM stack non-equisingular with its coarse moduli space, which means I must improve my understanding of coarse moduli spaces.

What are your favourite examples of coarse moduli spaces? One per answer, please, so we can rank them.

Best Answer

An elementary example everyone should know is

BG=[*/G].

Here * is a point and G is an algebraic group. Its sections on a scheme X form the groupoid of principal G-bundles on X. Because principal G bundles are locally trivial, the coarse moduli space is a point.

If M is a stack, it determines a presheaf \pi_0(M), whose sections are the isomorphisms classes of objects of M. One way to think about the coarse moduli space is as a space representing the sheafification of this presheaf in whatever topology you are working with.

Starting from this example, you should also be able to work out the issues surrounding [X/G]. In fact, it's good to revisit BG after working out the general case. But I won't do it here since you asked for one example only. In fact, maybe I should have said

*= Spec(Q)

and

G=GL_2/Q.

I learned about stacks in the days before all these nice books, so I'm not sure about a reference for anything I write about them. But the statements here should all be pretty clear from the definitions.

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