Variety of Singular Quadrics Containing a Projective Curve

Abstract

We study the variety of rank $\leq k$ quadrics containing a general projective curve and show that it has the expected dimension in the range $g-d+r\leq 1$. By considering the loci where this expectation is not true, we construct new divisor classes in $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$. We use one of these classes to show that $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{15,9}$ is of general type.