The tau function on the moduli space of generic holomorphic 1-differentials on complex algebraic curves is interpreted as a section of a line bundle on the projectivized Hodge bundle over the moduli space of stable curves. The asymptotics of the tau function near the boundary of the moduli space of 1-differentials is computed, and an explicit expression for the pullback of the Hodge class on the projectivized Hodge bundle in terms of the tautological class and the classes of boundary divisors is derived. This expression is used to clarify the geometric meaning of the Kontsevich-Zorich formula for the sum of the Lyapunov exponents associated with the Teichmüller flow on the Hodge bundle.
We review the role played by tau functions of special type - called {\it Bergman} tau functions in various areas: theory of isomonodromic deformations, solutions of Einstein's equations, theory of Dubrovin-Frobenius manifolds, geometry of moduli spaces and spectral theory of Riemann surfaces. These tau functions are natural generalizations of Dedekind's eta-function to higher genus. Study of their properties allows to get an explicit form of Einstein's metrics, obtain new relations in Picard groups of various moduli spaces and derive holomorphic factorization formulas of determinants of Laplac…
We use the formalism of the Bergman tau functions to study the geometry of moduli spaces of holomorphic quadratic differentials on complex algebraic curves. We introduce two natural tau functions and interpret them as holomorphic sections of certain line bundles on the moduli space. Analyzing the asymptotic behavior of these tau functions near the boundary of the moduli space we get two non-trivial relation in the rational Picard group of the moduli space of quadratic differential.
The main objective of this paper is to give a summary of our recent work on recursion formulae for intersection numbers on moduli spaces of curves and their applications. We also present a conjectural relation between tautological rings and the mock theta function.
We define two tau functions, $τ$ and $\hatτ$ , on moduli spaces of spectral covers of $GL(n)$ Hitchin's systems. Analyzing the properties of $τ$, we express the divisor class of the universal Hitchin's discriminant in terms of standard generators of the rational Picard group of the moduli spaces of spectral covers with variable base. The function $\hatτ$ is used to compute the divisor of canonical 1-forms with multiple zeros.
After a short exposition of the basic properties of the tautological ring of the moduli space of genus g Deligne-Mumford stable curves with n markings, we explain three methods of detecting non-tautological classes in cohomology. The first is via curve counting over finite fields. The second is by obtaining length bounds on the action of the symmetric group S_n on tautological classes. The third is via classical boundary geometry. Several new non-tautological classes are found.
Looijenga's vanishing theorem on the moduli space of curves $M_g$ says that the tautological ring vanishes above degree $g-2$. We prove an analogous result for the tautological cohomology ring of the moduli space of K3 surfaces.
We discuss analogs of Faber's conjecture for two nested sequences of partial compactifications of the moduli space of smooth curves. We show that their tautological rings are one-dimensional in top degree but do not satisfy Poincare duality.
We present a localization proof of the fact that the cohomology of the moduli spaces of genus zero stable maps to projective spaces is entirely tautological. In addition, we obtain a description of a Bialynicki-Birula stratification in the context of Gathmann's moduli spaces of maps with prescribed contact order to a fixed hyperplane.
The purpose of this paper is to formulate a number of conjectures giving a rather complete description of the tautological ring of M_g and to discuss the evidence for these conjectures.
In this paper, we discuss the cycle theory on moduli spaces $\cF_h$ of $h$-polarized hyperkähler manifolds. Firstly, we construct the tautological ring on $\cF_h$ following the work of Marian, Oprea and Pandharipande on the tautological conjecture on moduli spaces of K3 surfaces. We study the tautological classes in cohomology groups and prove that most of them are linear combinations of Noether-Lefschetz cycle classes. In particular, we prove the cohomological version of the tautological conjecture on moduli space of K3$^{[n]}$-type hyperkähler manifolds with $n\leq 2$. Secondly, we prove the…
We study here the tautological rings of the moduli spaces of compact Riemann surfaces of genus 1,2,3 and 4 with marked points. The paper presents the complete descriptions of these rings by describing the groups of all degrees.
We study the tautological ring of the moduli space of stable n-pointed curves of genus two with rational tails. The algebra is described in terms of explicit generators and relations. It is proven that this algebra is Gorenstein.
We calculate the Euler characteristic of associated vector bundles over the moduli spaces of stable parabolic bundles on smooth curves. Our method is based on a wall-crossing technique from Geometric Invariant Theory, certain iterated residue calculus and the tautological Hecke correspondence. Our work was motivated by the results of Teleman and Woodward on the index of K-theory classes on moduli stacks.
Results on stability of tautological sheaves on Hilbert schemes of points are extended to higher dimensions and transferred to abelian surfaces and to the restriction of tautological sheaves to generalised Kummer varieties. This provides a big class of new examples of stable sheaves on higher dimensional irreducible symplectic manifolds. Some aspects of deformations of tautological sheaves are studied.
The Bergman tau functions are applied to the study of the Picard group of moduli spaces of quadratic differentials with at most $n$ simple poles on genus $g$ complex algebraic curves. This generalizes our previous results on moduli spaces of holomorphic quadratic differentials.
We analyze Weierstrass cycles and tautological rings in moduli space of smooth algebraic curves and in moduli spaces of integral algebraic curves with embedded disks with special attention to moduli spaces of curves having genus $\leq 6$. In particular, we show that our general formula gives a good estimate for the dimension of Weierstrass cycles for lower genera.
In this paper, our aim is to find the relations amongst the cohomology classes of Brill-Noether subvarieties of the moduli space of semistable bundles over an elliptic curve. We obtain results similar to the Poincaré relations on a Jacobian variety.
We define tautological Chow classes on the moduli space of curves with linear series. In the case where the forgetful morphism to the moduli space of curves has relative dimension zero, we describe the images of these classes in the Chow group of Mgbar. As an application, we compute the (virtual) slopes of several different classes of divisors on Mgbar.
We give two recursions for computing top intersections of tautological classes on blowups of moduli spaces of genus-one curves. One of these recursions is analogous to the well-known string equation. As shown in previous papers, these numbers are useful for computing genus-one enumerative invariants of projective spaces and Gromov-Witten invariants of complete intersections.
We study tautological classes on the moduli space of stable $n$-pointed hyperelliptic curves of genus $g$ with rational tails. Our result gives a complete description of tautological relations. The method is based on the approach of Yin in comparing tautological classes on the moduli of curves and the universal Jacobian. It is proven that all relations come from the Jacobian side. The intersection pairings are shown to be perfect in all degrees. We show that the tautological algebra coincides with its image in cohomology via the cycle class map. The latter is identified with monodromy invarian…
The goal of the paper is to give an analytic proof of the formula of G. Farkas for the divisor class of spinors with multiple zeros in the moduli space of odd spin curves. We make use of the technique developed by Korotkin and Zograf that is based on properties of the Bergman tau function. We also show how the Farkas formula for the {\it theta-null} in the rational Picard group of the moduli space of even spin curves can be derived from classical theory of theta functions.
We study the interplay of the moduli of curves and the moduli of K3 surfaces via the virtual class of the moduli spaces of stable maps. Using Getzler's relation in genus 1, we construct a universal decomposition of the diagonal in Chow in the third fiber product of the universal K3 surface. The decomposition has terms supported on Noether-Lefschetz loci which are not visible in the Beauville-Voisin decomposition for a fixed K3 surface. As a result of our universal decomposition, we prove the conjecture of Marian-Oprea-Pandharipande: the full tautological ring of the moduli space of K3 surfaces…
The moduli space of stable relative maps to the projective line combines features of stable maps and admissible covers. We prove all standard Gromov-Witten classes on these moduli spaces of stable relative maps have tautological push-forwards to the moduli space of curves. In particular, the fundamental classes of all moduli spaces of admissible covers push-forward to tautological classes. Consequences for the tautological rings of the moduli spaces of curves include methods for generating new relations, uniform derivations of the socle and vanishing statements of the Gorenstein conjectures fo…
The combinatorial description via ribbon graphs of the moduli space of Riemann surfaces makes it possible to define combinatorial cycles in a natural way. Witten and Kontsevich first conjectured that these classes are polynomials in the tautological classes. We answer affirmatively to this conjecture and find recursively all the polynomials.
The virtual geometry of the moduli space of stable quotients is used to obtain Chow relations among the kappa classes on the moduli space of nonsingular genus g curves. In a series of steps, the stable quotient relations are rewritten in successively simpler forms. The final result is the proof of the Faber-Zagier relations (conjectured in 2000).
The tautological ring of the moduli space of stable curves has been studied extensively in the last decades. We present a SageMath implementation of many core features of this ring. This includes lists of generators and their products, intersection numbers and verification of tautological relations. Maps between tautological rings induced by functoriality, that is pushforwards and pullbacks under gluing and forgetful maps, are implemented. Furthermore, many interesting cycle classes, such as the double ramification cycles, strata of k-differentials and hyperelliptic or bielliptic cycles are av…
We prove a localization formula for the moduli space of stable relative maps. As an application, we prove that all codimension i tautological classes on the moduli space of stable pointed curves vanish away from strata corresponding to curves with at least i-g+1 genus 0 components. (The proof of this result is quite short and naive.) As consequences, we prove and generalize various conjectures and theorems about various moduli spaces of curves (due to Getzler, Ionel, Faber, Looijenga, Pandharipande, Diaz, and others). This theorem appears to be the geometric content behind these results; the r…
Pandharipande-Pixton have used the geometry of the moduli space of stable quotients to produce relations between tautological Chow classes on the moduli space $M_g$ of smooth genus g curves. We study a natural extension of their methods to the boundary and more generally to Hassett's moduli spaces $\overline M_{g, w}$ of stable nodal curves with weighted marked points. Algebraic manipulation of these relations brings them into a Faber-Zagier type form. We show that they give Pixton's generalized FZ relations when all weights are one. As a special case, we give a formulation of FZ relations for…
In this paper, we consider the tautological ring containing the extended Brill-Noether algebraic classes on the normalization of the compactified Jacobian of a complex nodal projective curve (with one node). This smallest $\Q$-subalgebra of algebraic classes under algebraic equivalence, stable under extensions of the maps induced by multiplication maps, Pontrayagin product and Fourier transform, is shown to be generated by pullback of the Brill-Noether classes of the Jacobian of the normalized curve and some natural classes.
We prove that the dimension 0 part of the tautological ring of the moduli space of stable pointed curves is one-dimensional. This provides the first genus-free evidence for a conjecture of Faber and Pandharipande that the tautological ring of the moduli space is Gorenstein, answering in the affirmative a question of Hain and Looijenga.
We construct a finite dimensional Kaehler manifold with a holomorphic, symplectic circle action whose symplectic reduced spaces may be identified with the tau-vortex moduli spaces (or tau-stable pairs). The Morse theory of the circle action induces natural birational maps between the reduced spaces for different values of tau which in the case of rank two bundles can be canonically resolved in a sequence of blow-ups and blow-downs.
Explicit construction of the basic SU(2) anti-instantons over the multi-Taub--NUT geometry via the classical conformal rescaling method is exhibited. These anti-instantons satisfiy the so-called weak holonomy condition at infinity with respect to the trivial flat connection and decay rapidly. The resulting unital energy anti-instantons have trivial holonomy at infinity. We also fully describe their unframed moduli space and find that it is a five dimensional space admitting a singular disk-fibration over R^3. On the way, we work out in detail the twistor space of the multi-Taub--NUT geometry t…
The boundary of the multi-scale differential compactification of strata of abelian differentials admits an explicit combinatorial description. However, even for low-dimensional strata, the complexity of the boundary requires use of a computer. We give a description of the algorithms implemented in the SageMath package diffstrata to enumerate the boundary components and perform intersection theory on this space. In particular, the package can compute the Euler characteristic of strata using the methods developed by the same authors in [CMZ20].
These notes cover our series of three lectures at Humboldt University in Berlin for the October 2010 conference "Intersection theory on moduli space" (organized by G. Farkas). The topic concerns relations among the kappa classes in the tautological ring of the moduli space of genus g curves. After a discussion of classical constructions in Wick form, we derive an explicit set of relations obtained from the virtual geometry of the moduli space of stable quotients. In a series of steps, the stable quotient relations are transformed to simpler and simpler forms. Our final result establishes a pre…
We describe a new perspective on the intersection theory of the moduli space of curves involving both Virasoro constraints and Gorenstein conditions. The main result of the paper is the computation of a basic 1-point Hodge integral series occurring in the tautological ring of the moduli space of nonsingular curves. In the appendix by D. Zagier, "Polynomials arising from the tautological ring", a detailed study is made of certain polynomials whose coefficients are intersection numbers on moduli space. The paper and the appendix together provide proofs of all previously conjectured formulas for …
Goulden, Jackson and Vakil observed a polynomial structure underlying one-part double Hurwitz numbers, which enumerate branched covers of $\mathbb{CP}^1$ with prescribed ramification profile over $\infty$, a unique preimage over 0, and simple branching elsewhere. This led them to conjecture the existence of moduli spaces and tautological classes whose intersection theory produces an analogue of the celebrated ELSV formula for single Hurwitz numbers. In this paper, we present three formulas that express one-part double Hurwitz numbers as intersection numbers on certain moduli spaces. The first …
We explore the structure of the cohomology ring of the moduli space of stable 1-dimensional sheaves on $\mathbb{P}^2$ of any degree. We obtain a minimal set of tautological generators, which implies an optimal generation result for both the cohomology and the Chow ring of the moduli space. Our approach is through a geometric study of tautological relations.
We extend the theory of tautological classes on moduli spaces of stable curves to the more general setting of moduli spaces of admissible Galois covers of curves, introducing the so-called H-tautological ring. The main new feature is the existence of restriction-corestriction morphisms remembering intermediate quotients of Galois covers, which are a rich source of new classes. In particular, our new framework includes classes of Harris-Mumford admissible covers on moduli spaces of curves, which are known in some (and speculatively many more) examples to lie outside the usual tautological ring.…
We describe a very large class of conjectural relations in the tautological ring of the moduli space $\bar{M}_{g,n}$ of stable curves of genus $g$ with $n$ marked points, extending and generalizing the Faber-Zagier relations. These notes are loosely based on informal talks given by the author at the workshop at KTH Stockholm on "The moduli space of curves and its intersection theory" in April 2012.
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.
This article accompanies my lecture at the 2015 AMS summer institute in algebraic geometry in Salt Lake City. I survey the recent advances in the study of tautological classes on the moduli spaces of curves. After discussing the Faber-Zagier relations on the moduli spaces of nonsingular curves and the kappa rings of the moduli spaces of curves of compact type, I present Pixton's proposal for a complete calculus of tautological classes on the moduli spaces of stable curves. Several open questions are discussed. An effort has been made to condense a great deal of mathematics into as few pages as…
