Equivariant versal deformations of semistable curves

Abstract

We prove that given any $n$-pointed prestable curve $C$ of genus $g$ with linearly reductive automorphism group ${\rm Aut}(C)$, there exists an ${\rm Aut}(C)$-equivariant miniversal deformation of $C$ over an affine variety $W$. In other words, we prove that the algebraic stack $\mathfrak{M}_{g,n}$ parametrizing $n$-pointed prestable curves of genus $g$ has an \'etale neighborhood of $[C]$ isomorphic to the quotient stack $[W / {\rm Aut}(C)]$.