We study the cohomology of certain local systems on moduli spaces of principally polarized abelian surfaces with a level 2 structure. The trace of Frobenius on the alternating sum of the étale cohomology groups of these local systems can be calculated by counting the number of pointed curves of genus 2 with a prescribed number of Weierstrass points over the given finite field. This cohomology is intimately related to vector-valued Siegel modular forms. The corresponding scheme in level 1 was carried out in [FvdG]. Here we extend this to level 2 where new phenomena appear.
We determine the contribution of the Eisenstein cohomology together with its S_6-action for the full level 2 structure and on the basis of our computations we make precise conjectures on the endoscopic contribution. We also make a prediction about the existence of a vector-valued analogue of the Saito-Kurokawa lift. Assuming these conjectures that are based on ample numerical evidence, we obtain the traces of the Hecke-operators T(p) for p < 41 on the remaining spaces of `genuine' Siegel modular forms. We present a number of examples of 1-dimensional spaces of eigenforms where these traces coincide with the Hecke eigenvalues. We hope that the experts on lifting and on endoscopy will be able to prove our conjectures.
We use vanishing results for sheaf cohomology on Siegel modular varieties to study two lifting problems: (a) When can Siegel modular forms (mod p) be lifted to characteristic zero? This uses and extends previous results for cusp forms by Stroh and Lan-Suh. (b) When is the restriction of Siegel modular forms to the boundary of the moduli space a surjective map? We investigate this question in arbitrary characteristic, generalising analytic results of Weissauer and Arakawa.
We study vector-valued Siegel modular forms of genus 2 and level 2. We describe the structure of certain modules of vector-valued modular forms over rings of scalar-valued modular forms.
We prove multiplicity one for vector valued holomorphic Siegel modular forms of weights greater or equal to 3 and the full Siegel modular group and give a trace formula for the action of the Hecke operators T(p) in the regular cases.
We prove that there exist exactly eight Siegel modular forms with respect to the congruence subgroups of Hecke type of the paramodular groups of genus two vanishing precisely along the diagonal of the Siegel upper half-plane. This is a solution of a question formulated during the conference "Black holes, Black Rings and Modular Forms" (ENS, Paris, August 2007). These modular forms generalize the classical Igusa form and the forms constructed by Gritsenko and Nikulin in 1998.
We extend Igusa's description of the relation between invariants of binary sextics and Siegel modular forms of degree two to a relation between covariants and vector-valued Siegel modular forms of degree two. We show how this relation can be used to effectively calculate the Fourier expansions of Siegel modular forms of degree two.
We define a family of arithmetic zero cycles in the arithmetic Chow group of a modular curve X_0(N), for N>3 odd and squarefree, and identify the arithmetic degrees of these cycles as q-coefficients of the central derivative of a Siegel Eisenstein series of genus two. This parallels work of Kudla-Rapoport-Yang for Shimura curves.
In this paper we present an algorithm for computing Hecke eigensystems of Hilbert-Siegel cusp forms over real quadratic fields of narrow class number one. We give some illustrative examples using the quadratic field $\Q(\sqrt{5})$. In those examples, we identify Hilbert-Siegel eigenforms that are possible lifts from Hilbert eigenforms.
We show how one can use the representation theory of ternary quartics to construct all vector-valued Siegel modular forms and Teichmüller modular forms of degree 3. The relation between the order of vanishing of a concomitant on the locus of double conics and the order of vanishing of the corresponding modular form on the hyperelliptic locus plays an important role. We also determine the connection between Teichmüller cusp forms on \overline{M}_g and the middle cohomology of symplectic local systems on M_g. In genus 3, we make this explicit in a large number of cases.
The object of this article is to construct certain classes of arithmetically significant, holomorphic Siegel cusp forms F of genus 2, which are neither of Saito-Kurokawa type, in which case the degree 4 spinor L-function L(s, F) is divisible by an abelian L-function, nor of Yoshida type, in which case L(s,F) is a product of L-series of a pair of elliptic cusp forms. Two key examples are the forms F defined by the symmetric cube of a non-CM elliptic curve E over the rationals, and those defined by anticyclotomic twists (of even non-zero weight) of the base change of such an E to an imaginary qu…
Lectures on Siegel modular forms given in Nordfjordeid. Besides a survey on Siegel modular forms it presents the joint work with Carel Faber on vector-valued Siegel modular forms of genus 2 and it gives evidence for a conjecture of Harder on congruences between g=1 and g=2 forms.
We study over rings of scalar valued Siegel modular forms. modules of vector valued modular forms of degree two. For the two simplest representations, standard and Sym^2, appears rather natural consider the cases of the group $Γ[4,8] $ and $Γ[2,4].$ In these case we give the complete structure of the modules . The main tools are Theta functions and their derivatives evaluated at $z=0$
We give an explicit conjectural formula for the motivic Euler characteristic of an arbitrary symplectic local system on the moduli space A_3 of principally polarized abelian threefolds. The main term of the formula is a conjectural motive of Siegel modular forms of a certain type; the remaining terms admit a surprisingly simple description in terms of the motivic Euler characteristics for lower genera. The conjecture is based on extensive counts of curves of genus three and abelian threefolds over finite fields. It provides a lot of new information about vector-valued Siegel modular forms of d…
We consider the moduli space $A_{pol}(n)$ of (non-principally) polarised abelian varieties of genus $g\geq3$ with coprime polarisation and full level-$n$ structure. Based upon the analysis of the Tits building in math/0405321, we give an explicit lower bound on $n$ that is sufficient for the compactified moduli space to be of general type if one further explicit condition is satisfied.
We state conjectures on the asymptotic behavior of the Masur-Veech volumes of strata in the moduli spaces of meromorphic quadratic differentials and on the asymptotics of their area Siegel-Veech constants as the genus tends to infinity.
We compute the cohomological invariants with coefficients in $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ of the stack $\mathscr{H}_3$ of hyperelliptic curves of genus $3$ over an algebraically closed field.
Let $\mathfrak p$ be any point in the moduli space of genus-two curves $\mathcal M_2$ and $K$ its field of moduli. We provide a universal equation of a genus-two curve $\mathcal C_{α, β}$ defined over $K(α, β)$, corresponding to $\mathfrak p$, where $α$ and $β$ satisfy a quadratic $α^2+ b β^2= c$ such that $b$ and $c$ are given in terms of ratios of Siegel modular forms. The curve $\mathcal C_{α, β}$ is defined over the field of moduli $K$ if and only if the quadratic has a $K$-rational point $(α, β)$. We discover some interesting symmetries of the Weierstrass equation of $\mathcal C_{α, β}$. …
In the paper we study two types of relations: a one is between the elliptic genus of Calabi-Yau manifolds and Jacobi modular forms, another one is between the second quantized elliptic genus, Siegel modular forms and Lorentzian Kac-Moody Lie algebras. We also determine the structure of the graded ring of the weak Jacobi forms with integral Fourier coefficients. It gives us a number of applications to the theory of elliptic genus and of the second quantized elliptic genus.
Let p be an odd prime and g an integer greater or equal to 2. We prove that a finite slope Siegel cuspidal eigenform of genus g can be p-adically deformed over the g-dimensional weight space. The proof of this result relies on the construction of a family of sheaves of locally analytic overconvergent modular forms.
Let $g$ be an even positive integer, and $p$ be a prime number. We compute the cohomological invariants with coefficients in $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ of the stacks of hyperelliptic curves $\mathscr{H}_g$ over an algebraically closed field $k_0$.
When the genus $g$ is even, we extend the computation of mod 2 cohomological invariants of $\mathcal{H}_g$ to non algebraically closed fields, we give an explicit functorial description of the invariants and we completely describe their multiplicative structure. In the Appendix, we show that the cohomological invariants of the compactification $\overline{\mathcal{H}}_g$ are trivial, and use our methods to give a very short proof of a result by Cornalba on the Picard group of the compactification $\overline{\mathcal{H}}_g$ and extend it to positive characteristic
We consider families of curve-to-curve maps that have no singularities except those of genus 0 stable maps and that satisfy a versality condition at each singularity. We provide a universal expression for the cohomology class Poincaré dual to the locus of any given singularity. Our expressions hold for any family of curve-to-curve maps satisfying the above properties.
Quasimodular forms were first studied in the context of counting torus coverings. Here we show that a weighted version of these coverings with Siegel-Veech weights also provides quasimodular forms. We apply this to prove conjectures of Eskin and Zorich on the large genus limits of Masur-Veech volumes and of Siegel-Veech constants. In Part I we connect the geometric definition of Siegel-Veech constants both with a combinatorial counting problem and with intersection numbers on Hurwitz spaces. We introduce modified Siegel-Veech weights whose generating functions will later be shown to be quasimo…
The open subvariety $\overline{M}_g^{\leq k}$ of $\overline{M}_g$ parametrizes stable curves of genus $g$ having at most $k$ rational components. By the work of Looijenga, one expects that the cohomological excess of $\overline{M}_g^{\leq k}$ is at most $g-1+k$. In this paper we show that when $k=0$, the conjectured upper bound is sharp by showing that there is a constructible sheaf on $\overline{H}_g^{\leq k}$ (the hyperelliptic locus) which has non-vanishing cohomology in degree $3g-2$.
We prove a vanishing theorem for one forms on the moduli stack of principally polarized abelian varieties of genus g>1 with level structure N over fields of characteristic p different from two. This is used to compute the Picard groups of these stacks. As an application we obtain results one congruences between integral Siegel modular forms.
We study genus 2 Hilbert-Siegel varieties, i.e. Shimura varieties $S_K$ corresponding to the group $\mbox{GSp}_{4,F}$ over a totally real field $F$, along with the relative Chow motives $^λ\mathcal{V}$ of abelian type over $S_K$ obtained from irreducible representations $V_λ$ of $\mbox{GSp}_{4,F}$. We analyse the weight filtration on the degeneration of such motives at the boundary of the Baily-Borel compactification and we find a criterion on the highest weight $λ$ which characterises the absence of the middle weights 0 and 1 in the corresponding degeneration. Thanks to Wildeshaus' theory, th…
We describe an algebra of meromorphic functions on the Siegel domain of genus two which contains Siegel modular forms for an arithmetic index six subgroup of the symplectic group and it is closed under three canonical derivations of the Siegel domain. The main ingredients of our study are the moduli of enhanced genus two curves, Gauss-Manin connection and the modular vector fields living on such moduli spaces.
The finite symplectic group Sp(2g) over the field of two elements has a natural representation on the vector space of Siegel modular forms of given weight for the principal congruence subgroup of level two. In this paper we decompose this representation, for various (small) values of the genus and the level, into irreducible representations. As a consequence we obtain uniqueness results for certain modular forms related to the superstring measure, a better understanding of certain modular forms in genus three studied by D'Hoker and Phong as well as a new construction of Miyawaki's cusp form of…
Let V be a rational quadratic space of signature (m,2). A conjecture of Kudla relates the arithmetic degrees of top degree special cycles on an integral model of a Shimura variety associated with SO(V) to the coefficients of the central derivative of an incoherent Siegel Eisenstein series of genus m+1. We prove this conjecture for the coefficients of non-singular index T when T is not positive definite. We also prove it when T is positive definite and the corresponding special cycle has dimension 0. To obtain these results, we establish new local arithmetic Siegel-Weil formulas at the archimed…
Under the assumption that Galois representations associated to Siegel modular forms exist (it is known only for genus at most 2), we show that the cohomology with p-adic integral coefficients of Siegel Varieties, when localized at a non-Eisenstein maximal ideal of the Hecke algebra, is torsion-free, provided the prime p is large with the respect to the weight of the coefficient system. The proof uses p-adic Hodge theory, the dual BGG complex modulo p in order to compute the Hodge-Tate weights for the mod p cohomology. We apply this result to the construction of Hida p-adic families for symplec…
We obtain a simple, recursive presentation of the tautological (κ, ψ, and λ) classes on the moduli space of curves in genus zero and one in terms of boundary strata (graphs). We derive differential equations for the generating functions for their intersection numbers which allow us to prove a simple relationship between the genus zero and genus one potentials. As an application, we describe the moduli space of normalized, even, rank one cohomological field theories in genus one in coordinates which are additive under taking tensor products. Our results simplify and generalize those of Kaufmann…
Let $\mathcal Q_D$ be the set of moduli points on Siegel's modular threefold whose corresponding principally polarized abelian surfaces have quaternionic multiplication by a maximal order $\mathcal O$ in an indefinite quaternion algebra of discriminant $D$ over $\mathbb Q$ such that the Rosati involution coincides with a positive involution of the form $α\mapstoμ^{-1}\overlineαμ$ on $\mathcal O$ for some $μ\in\mathcal O$ with $μ^2+D=0$. In this paper, we first give a formula for the number of irreducible components in $\mathcal Q_D$, strengthening an earlier result of Rotger. Then for each irr…
We give a geometric derivation of Schottky's equation in genus four for the period matrices of Riemann surfaces among all period matrices. The equation arises naturally from the singularity theory of the Gauss map on the theta divisor, and thus generalizes for any genus $g \ge 4$ to a certain ideal of Siegel modular forms vanishing on period matrices of Riemann surfaces. This ideal is generated by modular forms associated to the invariants of cubic forms in $g - 1$ variables which vanish on the Fermat cubic.
We compute the cohomology of the stack M_1 with coefficients in Z[1/2], and in low degrees with coefficients in Z. Cohomology classes on M_1 give rise to characteristic classes, cohomological invariants of families of curves of genus one. We prove a number of vanishing results for those characteristic classes, and give explicit examples of families with non-vanishing characteristic classes.
We make cohomological computations related to the moduli space of genus three curves with symplectic level two structure by means of counting points over finite fields. In particular, we determine the cohomology groups of the quartic locus as representations of the symmetric group on seven elements.
In this paper, we introduce modular polynomials for the congruence subgroup $Γ_0(M)$ when $ X_0(M) $ has genus zero and therefore the polynomials are defined by a Hauptmodul of $ X_0(M) $. We show that the intersection number of two curves defined by two modular polynomials can be expressed as the sum of the numbers of $\mathrm{SL}_2(\mathbb{Z})$-equivalence classes of positive definite binary quadratic forms over $\mathbb{Z}$. We also show that the intersection numbers can be also combinatorially written by Fourier coefficients of the Siegel Eisenstein series of degree 2, weight 2 with respec…
We study the curvature of the moduli space M_g of curves of genus g with the Siegel metric induced by the period map. We give an explicit formula for the holomorphic sectional curvature of M_g along a Schiffer variation at a point P on the curve X, in terms of the holomorphic sectional curvature of A_g and the second Gaussian map. Finally we extend the Kaehler form of the Siegel metric as a closed current on the Deligne-Mumford compatification of M_g and we determine its cohomology class as a multiple of the first Chern class of the Hodge bundle.
Let k be a field of characteristic different from 2. There can be an obstruction for an indecomposable principally polarized abelian threefold (A,a) over k to be a Jacobian over k. It can be computed in terms of the rationality of the square root of the value of a certain Siegel modular form. We show how to do this explicitly for principally polarized abelian threefolds which are the third power of an elliptic curve with complex multiplication. We use our numeric results to prove or refute the existence of some optimal curves of genus 3.
The moduli space of Riemann surfaces of genus $g\geq 2$ is (up to a finite étale cover) a complex manifold and so it makes sense to speak of its Dolbeault cohomological dimension. The conjecturally optimal bound is $g-2$. This expectation is verified in low genus and supported by Harer's computation of its de Rham cohomological dimension and by vanishing results in the tautological intersection ring. In this paper we prove that such dimension is at most $2g-2$. We also prove an analogous bound for the moduli space of Riemann surfaces with marked points. The key step is to show that the Dolbeau…
We introduce a common generalization of essentially all known methods for explicit computation of Selmer groups, which are used to bound the ranks of abelian varieties over global fields. We also simplify and extend the proofs relating what is computed to the cohomologically-defined Selmer groups. Selmer group computations have been practical for many Jacobians of curves over Q of genus up to 2 since the 1990s, but our approach is the first to be practical for general curves of genus 3. We show that our approach succeeds on some genus-3 examples defined by polynomials with small coefficients.
A long-standing question in string theory is to find the explicit expression of the bosonic measure, a crucial issue also in determining the superstring measure. Such a measure was known up to genus three. Belavin and Knizhnik conjectured an expression for genus four which has been proved in the framework of the recently introduced vector-valued Teichmueller modular forms. It turns out that for g>3 the bosonic measure is expressed in terms of such forms. In particular, the genus four Belavin-Knizhnik "wonderful formula" has a remarkable extension to arbitrary genus whose structure is deeply re…
A method of constructing Cohomological Field Theories (CohFTs) with unit using minimal classes on the moduli spaces of curves is developed. As a simple consequence, CohFTs with unit are found which take values outside of the tautological cohomology of the moduli spaces of curves. A study of minimal classes in low genus is presented in the Appendix by D. Petersen.
We investigate the existence and non-existence of modular forms of low weight with a character with respect to the paramodular group $Γ_t$ and discuss the resulting geometric consequences. Using an advanced version of Maaß lifting one can construct many examples of such modular forms and in particular examples of weight 3 cusp forms. Consequently we find many abelian coverings of low degree of the moduli space ${\Cal A}_t$ of (1,t)-polarized abelian surfaces which are not unirational. We also determine the commutator subgroups of the paramodular group $Γ_t$ and its degree 2 extension $Γ^+_t$. …
We show that the higher genus 4-point superstring amplitude is strongly constrained by the geometry of moduli space of Riemann surfaces. A detailed analysis leads to a natural proposal which satisfies several conditions. The result is based on the recently derived Siegel induced metric on the moduli space of Riemann surfaces and on combinatorial products of determinants of holomorphic abelian differentials.
In the 80's H. Masur and W. Veech defined two numerical invariants of strata of abelian differentials: the volume and the Siegel-Veech constant. Based on numerical experiments, A. Eskin and A. Zorich proposed a series of conjectures for the large genus asymptotics of these invariants. By a careful analysis of the asymptotic behavior of quasi-modular forms, D. Chen, M. Moeller, and D. Zagier proved this conjecture for strata of differentials with simple zeros. Here, we prove that the conjecture holds for the other extreme case, i.e. for strata of differentials with a unique zero. Our main ingre…
In this paper, we generalize the Givental theory for Frobenius manifolds and cohomological field theories to flat F-manifolds and F-cohomological field theories. In particular, we define a notion of Givental cone for flat F-manifolds, and we provide a generalization of the Givental group as a matrix loop group acting on them. We show that this action is transitive on semisimple flat F-manifolds. We then extend this action to F-cohomological field theories in all genera. We show that, given a semisimple flat F-manifold and a Givental group element connecting it to the constant flat F-manifold a…
We use the explicit relation between genus filtrated $s$-loop means of the Gaussian matrix model and terms of the genus expansion of the Kontsevich--Penner matrix model (KPMM), which is the generating function for volumes of discretized (open) moduli spaces $M_{g,s}^{disc}$ (discrete volumes), to express Gaussian means in all genera as polynomials in special times weighted by ancestor invariants of an underlying cohomological field theory. We translate topological recursion of the Gaussian model into recurrent relations for coefficients of this expansion proving their integrality and positivit…
In this paper we study the expressions of the superstring chiral measures for $g\leq 5$. We obtain certain new expressions which are functions of higher powers of theta constants. For $g=3$ we show that the measures can be written in terms of fourth power of theta constants and for $g=4$ in terms of squares of theta constants. In both cases the forms $Ξ_8^{(g)}[0^{(g)}]$ appearing in the expression of the measures are defined on the whole Siegel upper half space. Instead, for $g=5$ we find a form $Ξ_8^{(5)}[0^{(5)}]$ which is a polynomial in the classical theta constants, well defined on the S…
We compute the intersection Betti numbers of the GIT model of the moduli space of Brill-Noether-Petri general curves of genus 4. This space was shown to be the final non-trivial log canonical model for the moduli space of stable genus four curves, under the Hassett-Keel program. The strategy of the cohomological computation relies on a general method developed by Kirwan to calculate the cohomology of GIT quotients of projective varieties, based on the equivariantly perfect stratification of the unstable points studied by Hesselink and others and a partial resolution of singularities.
