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 give additive generators for the H-tautological ring and show that their intersections may be algorithmically computed, building on work of Schmitt-van Zelm. As an application, we give a method for computing integrals of Harris-Mumford loci against tautological classes of complementary dimension, recovering and giving a mild generalization of a recent quasi-modularity result of the author for covers of elliptic curves.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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…
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 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 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…
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).
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…
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.
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…
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 define tautological relations for the moduli space of stable maps to a target variety. Using the double ramification cycle formula for target varieties of Janda-Pandharipande-Pixton-Zvonkine, we construct nontrivial tautological relations parallel to Pixton's double ramification cycle relations for the moduli of curves. Examples and applications are discussed.
We prove Getzler's claims about the tautological ring of stable curves of genus one, i.e. that the tautological ring coincides with the even cohomology ring, and that all relations between generators follow from the WDVV relation and Getzler's relation.
Let $J$ be the Jacobian of a smooth projective complex curve $C$ which admits non-trivial automorphisms, and let $A(J)$ be the ring of algebraic cycles on $J$ with rational coefficients modulo algebraic equivalence. We present new tautological rings in $A(J)$ which extend in a natural way the tautological ring studied by Beauville (Compos Math 140(3):683-688, 2004). We then show there exist tautological rings induced on special complementary abelian subvarieties of $J$.
We describe the tautological ring of the moduli space of $n$-pointed curves of genus one of compact type. It is proven that it is a Gorenstein algebra.
We derive effective recursion formulae of top intersections in the tautological ring $R^*(M_g)$ of the moduli space of curves of genus $g\geq 2$. As an application, we prove a convolution-type tautological relation in $R^{g-2}(M_g)$.
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 …
Using a simple geometric argument, we obtain an infinite family of nontrivial relations in the tautological ring of $M_g$ (and in fact that of $M_{g,2}$). One immediate consequence of these relations is that the classes $κ_1,...,κ_{[g/3]}$ generate the tautological ring of $M_g$, which has been conjectured by Faber, and recently proven at the level of {\em cohomology} by Morita.
We state and check the analogue of Faber's conjectures for the tautological ring of the moduli spaces $M_{g,n}$ of $n$-pointed smooth curves of genus $g$.
We find a set of generators and relations for the system of extended tautological rings associated to the moduli spaces of stable maps in genus zero, admitting a simple geometrical interpretation. In particular, when the target is $\PP^n$, these give a complete presentation for the cohomology and Chow rings in the cases with/without marked points.
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 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.
Let $g \geq 2$. Let $M_{g,n}^{rt}$ be the moduli space of $n$-pointed genus $g$ curves with rational tails. Let $C_g^n$ be the $n$-fold fibered power of the universal curve over $M_g$. We prove that the tautological ring of $M_{g,n}^{rt}$ has Poincaré duality if and only if the same holds for the tautological ring of $C_g^n$. We also obtain a presentation of the tautological ring of $M_{g,n}^{rt}$ as an algebra over the tautological ring of $C_g^n$. This proves a conjecture of Tavakol. Our results are valid in the more general setting of wonderful compactifications.
In the Gromov-Witten theory of a target curve we consider descendent integrals against the virtual fundamental class relative to the forgetful morphism to the moduli space of curves. We show that cohomology classes obtained in this way lie in the tautological ring.
Looijenga recently proved that the tautological ring of M_g vanishes in degree d>g-2 and is at most one-dimensional in degree g-2, generated by the class of the hyperelliptic locus. Here we show that K_{g-2} is non-zero on M_g. The proof uses the Witten conjecture, proven by Kontsevich. With similar methods, we expect to be able to prove some (possibly all) of the identities in degree g-2 in the tautological ring that are part of the author's conjectural explicit description of the ring.
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.
Let $N$ be the smallest integer such that there is a non-tautological cohomology class of even degree on $\mathcal{\bar M}_{2,N}$. We remark that there is such a non-tautological class on $\mathcal{\bar M}_{2,20}$, by work of Graber and Pandharipande. We show that $\mathcal{\bar M}_{2,N}$ has non-tautological cohomology only in one degree, which is not the middle degree. In particular, it follows that the tautological ring of $\mathcal{\bar M}_{2,N}$ is not Gorenstein. We present some evidence suggesting that N=20 holds.
We bound the dimensions of the graded pieces of the tautological ring of the universal curve from below for genus up to 27 and from above for genus up to 9. As a consequence we obtain the precise structure of the tautological ring of the universal curve for genus up to 9. In particular, we see that it is Gorenstein for these genera.
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.
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 exhibit a 2-dimensional family of non-hyperelliptic curves of genus 5, called Humbert curves, for which the tautological ring injects into cohomology. In particular, Humbert curves have a multiplicative Chow-Künneth decomposition (in the sense of Shen-Vial), and their Ceresa cycle is torsion.
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.
We connect two notions of tautological ring: one for the moduli space of curves (after Mumford, Faber, etc.), and the other for the Jacobian of a curve (after Beauville, Polishchuk, etc.). The motivic Lefschetz decomposition on the Jacobian side produces relations between tautological classes, leading to results about Faber's Gorenstein conjecture on the curve side. We also relate certain Gorenstein properties on both sides and verify them for small genera. Further, we raise the question whether all tautological relations are motivic, giving a possible explanation why the Gorenstein properties…
We consider the Chow ring with rational coefficients of the Jacobian of a curve. Assume D is a divisor in a base point free g^r_d of the curve such that the canonical divisor K is a multiple of the divisor D. We find relations between tautological cycles. We give applications for curves having a degree d covering of P^1 whose ramification points are all of order d, and then for hyperelliptic curves.
We prove that all monomials of $κ$-classes and $ψ$-classes are independent in $R^k(\ocM_{g,n})/R^k(\partial\ocM_{g,n})$ for all $k \leq [g/3]$. We also give a simple argument for $κ_l \neq 0$ in $R^l(\mathcal{M}_g)$ for $l \leq g-2$.
