Lefschetz pencils and divisors in moduli space (Q1774801)

This paper is largely a sequel to an earlier paper of the author [Geom. Topol. 3, 211--233 (1999; Zbl 0929.53047)], and continues its theme of studying Lefschetz pencils on symplectic \(4\)-dimensional manifolds by exploiting certain associated spheres in the moduli space of curves. A Lefschetz pencil is a generalization to smooth \(4\)-manifolds of the holomorphic pencils found natively on many complex algebraic surfaces; Lefschetz pencils have recently entered the mainstream of \(4\)-manifold topology by virtue of Donaldson's important theorem [\textit{S. K. Donaldson}, J. Differ. Geom. 53, No. 2, 205--236 (1999; Zbl 1040.53094)] that any integral symplectic \(4\)-manifold admits such a pencil. If \(X\) admits a Lefschetz pencil, then blowing up \(X\) at the basepoints of that pencil gives a Lefschetz fibration \(f:X\to S^2\) with base the \(2\)-sphere \(S^2\). If a metric is chosen on \(X\), this induces a map \(\phi_f:S^2\to \overline{M_g}\), where \(\overline{M_g}\) is the Deligne-Mumford moduli space of curves. The author's technique is to examine the intersections of \(\phi_f(S^2)\) with certain natural divisors in \(\overline{M_g}\). He uses this to prove several interesting and varied theorems, listed below. 1. If the covering sequence -- a sequence of rational intersection numbers in the moduli space described in the paper -- of \(X\) is bounded above, then \(2c_1(X)=0\). It vanishes identically if and only if \(2c_1(X)=c_2(X)=0\). 2. There exists a symplectic genus three pencil which is not holomorphic. 3. Only finitely many pairs \((c_1^2,c_2)\) are realized as the total space of genus two pencils. 4. Every symplectic \(4\)-manifold admits pencils composed of only irreducible curves.