Topological Structures of Moduli Spaces of Curves and Anabelian Geometry in Positive Characteristic

Abstract: In the present paper, we study a new kind of anabelian phenomenon concerning the smooth pointed stable curves in positive characteristic. It shows that the topological structures of moduli spaces of curves can be understood from the viewpoint of anabelian geometry. We formulate some new anabelian-geometric conjectures relating the tame fundamental groups of curves over algebraically closed fields of characteristic $p>0$ to the moduli spaces of curves. These conjectures are generalized versions of the weak Isom-version of the Grothendieck conjecture for curves over algebraically closed fields of characteristic $p>0$ which was formulated by Tamagawa. Moreover, we prove that the conjectures hold for certain points lying in the moduli space of curves of genus $0$.