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 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.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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 …
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.
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.
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 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 $l \leq g-2$.
We show that the vanishing of the $(g+1)$-st power of the theta divisor in the cohomology and Chow rings of the universal abelian variety implies, by pulling back along a collection of Abel-Jacobi maps, the vanishing results in the tautological ring of $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$ of Looijenga, Ionel, Graber-Vakil, and Faber-Pandharipande. We also show that Pixton's double ramification cycle relations, which generalize the theta vanishing relations and were recently proved by the first and third authors, imply Theorem $\star$ of Graber and Vakil. Moreover, our proof provides an algorithm for expressing…
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…
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 give a criterion for extending a generically semisimple (not necessarily conformal) Frobenius manifold locally near a smooth point of the discriminant to a cohomological field theory. As an application, we show that a large set of tautological relations related to the Givental--Teleman classification for any generically semisimple cohomological field theories follow from Pixton's generalized Faber--Zagier relations.
We compute the tautological ring for a Hilbert modular variety at an unramified prime. The method generalises that of van der Geer from the Siegel case.
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 use relations in the tautological ring of the moduli spaces $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ derived by Pandharipande, Pixton, and Zvonkine from the Givental formula for the $r$-spin Witten class in order to obtain some restrictions on the dimensions of the tautological rings of the open moduli spaces $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$. In particular, we give a new proof for the result of Looijenga (for $n=1$) and Buryak et al. (for $n\geq 2$) that $\dim R^{g-1}(\mathcal{M}_{g,n}) \leq n$. We also give a new proof of the result of Looijenga (for $n=1$) and Ionel (for arbitrary $n\geq 1$) that $R^{i}(\mathca…
We prove that the tautological ring of $M_{2,n}^{ct}$, the moduli space of n-pointed genus two curves of compact type, does not have Poincaré duality for any $n \geq 8$. This result is obtained via a more general study of the cohomology groups of $M_{2,n}^{ct}$. We explain how the cohomology can be decomposed into pieces corresponding to different local systems and how the tautological cohomology can be identified within this decomposition. Our results allow the computation of $H^k(M_{2,n}^{ct})$ for any $k$ and $n$ considered both as $S_n$-representation and as mixed Hodge structure/$\ell$-ad…
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 give a new method of producing relations in the tautological ring R(M_{g, 1}), using the sl_2-action on the Chow ring of the universal Jacobian. With these relations, we prove that R(M_{g, 1}) is generated by κ_i for i no greater than g/3, together with ψ. Our computation shows that Faber's conjectures for M_{g, 1} are true for g up to 19. Further, by pushing relations forward to M_g, we obtain a new proof of Faber's conjectures (for M_g) for g up to 23. For g = 24, our method recovers all the Faber-Zagier relations. We also give an algebraic proof of an identity of Morita.
We study tautological cycle classes on the Jacobian of a curve. We prove a new result about the ring of tautological classes on a general curve that allows, among other things, easy dimension calculations and leads to some general results about the structure of this ring. Next we obtain a vanishing result for some of the generating classes p_i; this gives an improvement of an earlier result of Herbaut. Finally we lift a result of Herbaut and van der Geer-Kouvidakis to the Chow ring (as opposed to its quotient modulo algebraic equivalence) and we give a method to obtain further explicit cycle r…
Strata of $k$-differentials on smooth curves parameterize sections of the $k$-th power of the canonical bundle with prescribed orders of zeros and poles. Define the tautological ring of the projectivized strata using the $κ$ and $ψ$ classes of moduli spaces of pointed smooth curves along with the tautological class $η$ of the Hodge bundle. We show that if there is no pole of order $k$, then the tautological ring is generated by $η$ only, and otherwise it is generated by the $ψ$ classes corresponding to the poles of order $k$.
We give an algorithmic description of the action of the Chern classes of tautological bundles on the cohomology of Hilbert schemes of points on surfaces within the framework of Nakajima's oscillator algebra. This leads to an identification of the cohomology ring of Hilbert schemes of the affine plane with a ring of differential operators on a Fock space. We end with the computation of the top Segre classes of tautological bundles associated to line bundles on Hilb^n up to n=7, and give a conjecture for the generating series.
We prove among other things that any product of tautological classes of $\M_g$ of degree $d$ (in the Chow ring of $\M _g$ with rational coefficients) vanishes for $d>g-2$ and is proportional to the class of the hyperelliptic locus in degree $g-2$.
The main goal of this paper is to introduce a set of conjectures on the relations in the tautological rings. In particular, the framework gives an efficient algorithm to calculate all tautological equations using only finite dimensional linear algebra. Other applications are also indicated.
Let $\mathcal{H}_{k,g}$ be the Hurwitz stack parametrizing degree $k$, genus $g$ covers of $\mathbb{P}^1$. We define the tautological ring of $\mathcal{H}_{k,g}$ and we show that all Chow classes, except possibly those supported on the locus of "factoring covers," are tautological up to codimension roughly $g/k$ when $k \leq 5$. The set-up developed here is also used in our subsequent work, wherein we prove new results about the structure of the Chow ring for $k \leq 5$.
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.
We study the Chow ring of the moduli stack $\mathfrak{M}_{g,n}$ of prestable curves and define the notion of tautological classes on this stack. We extend formulas for intersection products and functoriality of tautological classes under natural morphisms from the case of the tautological ring of the moduli space $\bar{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ of stable curves. This paper provides foundations for the second part of the paper. In the appendix (joint with J. Skowera), we develop the theory of a proper, but not necessary projective, pushforward of algebraic cycles. The proper pushforward is necessary …
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 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.
The Chow ring of $\mathcal{M}_g$ is known to be generated by tautological classes for $g \leq 9$. Meanwhile, the first example of a non-tautological class on $\mathcal{M}_{g}$ is the fundamental class of the bielliptic locus in $\mathcal{M}_{12}$, due to van Zelm. It remains open if the Chow rings of $\mathcal{M}_{10}$ and $\mathcal{M}_{11}$ are generated by tautological classes. In these cases, a natural first place to look is at the bielliptic locus. In genus $10$, it is already known that classes supported on the bielliptic locus are tautological. Here, we prove that all classes supported o…
We give a complete description of the tautological subgroup of the fourth cohomology group of the moduli space of pointed stable curves, and prove that for g \geq 8 it coincides with the cohomology group itself. We further give a conjectural upper bound depending on the genus for the degree of new tautological relations.
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.