Compactification of the universal Picard over the moduli of stable curves

Abstract.

This article provides two different, but closely related, moduli problems, which in characteristic zero provide a type of compactification of the universal Picard over the moduli of stable curves. Although neither is of finite type, both are limits of a sequence of stacks, each of which is a separated algebraic stack of finite type. We discuss relations to previous compactifications and partial compactifications, give a number of examples related to this compactification, and work out the structure of its fibres over certain fixed curves. Some applications are also discussed.