The intersection cohomology of the Satake compactification of \(\mathcal {A}_g\) for \(g \leq 4\) (Q1674591)

Intersection cohomology is a powerful tool for studying the topology of singular algebraic varieties. In the specific case of locally symmetric spaces and their Baily--Borel compactification, intersection cohomology also relates in many way to other cohomology theories, such as \(L^2\)-cohomology. On the other hand, there are not so many known cases of explicit computations. The paper under review fills this gap in the most classical case of a locally symmetric space, i.e. the moduli space \(\mathcal{A}_g\) of principally polarized abelian varieties of dimension \(g\). The main result is a computation of the intersection cohomology of the Baily-Borel-Satake compactification \(\mathcal{A}_g^{\text{Sat}}\) for \(g\leq 4\). The result is that in this case the intersection cohomology is isomorphic to the tautological ring of any smooth toroidal compactification of \(\mathcal {A}_g\), i.e. the subring of the cohomology ring generated by the Chern classes of the Hodge bundle. The result does not include the case of the middle intersection cohomology \(H^{10}(\mathcal{A}_g^{\text{Sat}})\), which was settled only recently by Taïbi. The proof is based on studying the natural map from a smooth toroidal compactification of \(\mathcal{A}_g\) to the Baily--Borel-Satake compactification and applying to it the decomposition theorem of \textit{A. A. Beilinson} et al. [Astérisque 100, 172 p. (1982; Zbl 0536.14011)], using a process inspired by its proof by \textit{de Cataldo} and \textit{L. Migliorini} in [Bull. Am. Math. Soc., New Ser. 46, No. 4, 535--633 (2009; Zbl 1181.14001)]. As a byproduct, the paper also includes several results about the intersection cohomology of the link bundles of the strata of \(\mathcal{A}_g^{\text{Sat}} = \mathcal{A}_g \amalg \mathcal{A}_{g-1} \amalg \cdots \amalg \mathcal{A}_0\) inside \(\mathcal{A}_g^{\text{Sat}}\).