Relative maps and tautological classes (Q1769379)

The system of tautological rings of the moduli spaces \(\overline M_{g,n}\) is defined exploiting the inductive structure these spaces possess, and the complicated network of natural morphisms which connects them. A possible definition of these rings requires that they form the minimal system of subalgebras of the rational Chow rings of \(\overline M_{g,n}\) which are invariant by the natural marking forgetting and gluing pushforwards. One shows that the usual \(\psi\), \(\kappa\) and \(\lambda\) classes lie in the tautological rings. Explicit constructions of non-tautological classes are obtained for instance by \textit{T. Graber} and \textit{R. Pandharipande} [Mich. Math. J. 51, No. 1, 93--109 (2003; Zbl 1079.14511)]. An application of the virtual localization theorem shows that pushforwards of tautological Gromov-Witten classes from the moduli space of absolute stable maps to homogeneous targets \(\overline M_{g,n}(X, \beta)\) also yield tautological classes on \(\overline M_{g,n}\). This result is extended in the paper under review. The authors study the Chow classes obtained by pushing forward relative Gromov-Witten classes on the moduli space of relative stable maps to \(\mathbb P^1\) via the natural morphism to \(\overline M_{g,n}\) which remembers only the domain curve and its markings. It is shown that all such classes are tautological. The proof exploits a system of relations, obtained via the localization theorem, which constrain the pushforwards of the relative Gromov-Witten classes. As a corollary, these pushforwards are recursively computed in terms of \(\psi\), \(\kappa\) and \(\lambda\) classes. Moreover, the authors strengthen the Ionel vanishing theorem [\textit{E.-N. Jonel}, Invent. Math. 148, No. 3, 627--658 (2002; Zbl 1056.14076)], proving that any polynomial in the \(\psi\) and \(\kappa\) classes on \(\overline M_{g,n}\) of total degree at least \(g\geq 1\) is a pushforward of \textit{tautological} classes supported on the boundary. In turn, this result is applied to prove the socle and vanishing claims of the Gorenstein conjectures for the tautological rings of \(\overline M_{g,n}\) and the related moduli spaces of curves of compact type and or with rational tails [see also the approach of \textit{T. Graber} and \textit{R. Vakil}, Duke Math. J. 130, No. 1, 1--37 (2005; Zbl 1088.14007)]. Finally, the authors discuss applications to the reconstruction of arbitrary genus Gromov-Witten invariants from a restricted set of invariants containing less than \(g\) descendants and kappa classes.