Genus two stable maps, local equations and modular resolutions

Abstract We provide a geometric construction of a sequence of modular blowups of the Artin stack parameterizing pre-stable pairs consisting of a genus 2 nodal curve and a smooth divisor. The resulting stack locally diagonalizes the tautological derived objects associated with the moduli of stable maps from genus 2 curves to projective space. As a consequence, the singularities of the main component of the moduli space of stable maps are resolved, and the entire space admits only normal crossing singularities. Our approach is expected to generalize to higher genera.