The Chow ring of the stack of cyclic covers of the projective line (Q424832)

The authors compute the integral Chow ring of the moduli stack \(\mathcal{H}_{sm}(1,r,d)\) parametrizing smooth uniform \(\mu_r\)-cyclic covers of \(\mathbb{P}^1\), whose branch divisor has degree \(N=rd\). The general idea is as follows. By a result of \textit{A. Arsie} and \textit{A. Vistoli} [Compos. Math. 140, No. 3, 647--666 (2004; Zbl 1169.14301)] that the stack \(\mathcal{H}_{sm}(1,r,d)\) is a global quotient stack \([(\mathrm{Sym}^N(V^*)\setminus\Delta)/G]\), where \(V\) is the standard representation of \(\mathrm{GL}_2\) (so that \(\mathrm{Sym}^N(V^*)\) is the vector space of homogeneous binary forms of degree \(N\)), \(\Delta\) is the discriminant consisting of binary forms with multiple roots, \(G=\mathrm{GL}_2\) when \(d\) is odd, and \(G=\mathbb{G}_m\times \mathrm{PGL}_2\) when \(d\) is even. Then one can apply equivariant intersection theory developed by \textit{D. Eddin} and \textit{W. Graham} [Invent. Math. 131, No. 3, 595--644 (1998; Zbl 0940.14003)] and \textit{B. Totaro} [Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 67, 249--281 (1999; Zbl 0967.14005)] getting that \[ A^*(\mathcal{H}(1,r,d))=A^*_G(\mathrm{Sym}^N(V^*)\setminus\Delta). \] The computation then boils down to computing the equivariant Chow ring in question. The result is that when \(d\) is odd, \[ A^*(\mathcal{H}(1,r,d))=\frac{\mathbb{Z}[c_1,c_2]}{\langle r(N-1)c_1, \frac{(N-r)(N-r-2)}{4}c_1^2-N(N-2)c_2\rangle}, \] when \(d\) is even, \[ A^*(\mathcal{H}(1,r,d))=\frac{\mathbb{Z}[c_1,c_2,c_3]}{\langle P_N(-rc_1), 2c_3, 2r(N-1)c_1, 2r^2c_1^2-\frac{N(N-2)}{2}c_2 \rangle}, \] where \(c_i\) are (the pull-back of) the Chern classes of the standard representation \(V\) of \(\mathrm{GL}_2\). \(p_N\) is a monic polynomial which can be explicitly written down. Finally, the authors also give explicit description for the generators of the Chow ring as Chern classes of natural vector bundles.