The Moduli Space of Curves

This generalization of geometry is bound to have wide­ spread repercussions for mathematics as well as physics. The unearthing of it will entail a new golden age in the interaction of mathematics and physics. E. Witten (1986) The idea that the moduli space Mg of curves of fixed genus 9 - that is, the algebraic variety that parametrizes all curves of genus 9 - is an intriguing object in its own right seems to have come slowly. Although the para­ meters or moduli of curves surface in Riemann's fam