Frobenius manifolds near the discriminant and relations in the tautological ring (Q1653688)

Given a cohomological field theory (CohFT) \(\Omega_{g,n}:(V^*)^{\otimes n}\to H^*(\overline M_{g,n})\), under convergence assumptions, it is possible to realize \(V\) as the tangent space of a point of a Frobenius manifold, and \(\Omega_{g,n}\) can be extended to a family of CohFTs over this Frobenius manifold. For such CohFTs (called convergent CohFTs) the reconstruction theorem of Givental-Teleman reconstructs \(\Omega_{g,n}\) from its underlying Frobenius manifold near a semisimple point (up to choice of integration constants), and also extends a neighborhood of this point to a convergent CohFT. By a result of Hertling, the germ of an \(N\)-dimensional semisimple Frobenius manifold near a smooth point \(p\) on the discriminant locus is of the form \(I_2(m)\times A_1^{N-2}\) for some integer \(m\geq 3\), so in particular all but two idempotent vector fields extend to \(p\). The main result of the paper under review combines the Givental-Teleman reconstruction theorem with Herting's result to prove that, for \(m=3\), a neighborhood of a smooth point on the discriminant of a semisimple Frobenius manifold can be extended to a convergent CohFT. As an application the paper shows that a large set of tautological relations obtained from the Givental-Teleman classification for semisimple CohFTs follow from Pixton's generalized Faber-Zagier relations.