Positivity of relative canonical bundles for families of canonically polarized manifolds

Given an effectively parameterized family of canonically polarized manifolds the Kaehler-Einstein metrics on the fibers induce a hermitian metric on the relative canonical bundle. We use a global elliptic equation to show that this metric is strictly positive. For degenerating families we obtain a singular hermitian metric. Main application is an analytic proof of the quasi-projectivity of the moduli space of canonically polarized manifolds. Further applications in arXiv:1002.4858v2.