In mathematics, a nilcurve is a pointed stable curve over a finite field with an indigenous bundle whose p-curvature is square nilpotent. Nilcurves were introduced by as a central concept in his theory of p-adic Teichmüller theory.
The nilcurves form a stack over the moduli stack of stable genus g curves with r marked points in characteristic p, of degree p3g–3+r.