Nontautological bielliptic cycles (Q1703662)

Let \({\mathcal M}_{g,n}\) be the moduli space of genus \(g\) curves with \(n\) marked points, and let \(\overline{\mathcal M}_{g,n}\) be its Deligne-Mumford compactification. The tautological ring of \({\mathcal M}_{g,n}\) (resp. \(\overline{\mathcal M}_{g,n}\)), roughly speaking, is a subring of the Chow (or cohomology) ring generated by natural characteristic classes (resp. and in addition boundary classes). One can ask the question whether there exist nontautological classes on \({\mathcal M}_{g,n}\) and \(\overline{\mathcal M}_{g,n}\). Using certain bielliptic curves, \textit{T. Graber} and \textit{R. Pandharipande} found nontautological classes for the case \(g = 2\) and \(n = 20\) [Mich. Math. J. 51, No. 1, 93--109 (2003; Zbl 1079.14511)]. The main result of this paper extends the existence of such nontautological classes to a bigger range of \(g\) and \(n\). In particular, the author shows that nontautological classes exist on \({\mathcal M}_{12}\) and on \(\overline{{\mathcal M}}_{g}\) for all \(g \geq 12\).