Dynamical invariants and intersection theory on the flex and gothic loci (Q2157468)

Let \(\mathcal M_{1,3}\) be the space of elliptic curves with three marked points \((E,p_1,p_2,p_3)\). \textit{C. T. McMullen} et al. introduced the \textit{flex locus} \(\mathcal F \subset \mathcal M_{1,3}\) consisting of triples where \(E\) admits a plane cubic model with projection \(\pi\) from a point \(s \in \mathbb P^2 - E\) such that \(p_1,p_2,p_3\) are collinear cocritical points of \(\pi\), meaning that the fiber of \(\pi\) is of type \(p_i+2q_i\) where \(q_i\) is a critical point [Ann. Math. 185, 957--990 (2017; Zbl 1460.14062)]. The flex locus is a primitive, totally geodesic subvariety. Let \(\overline{\mathcal F} \subset \overline{\mathcal M_{1,3}}\) be the closure in the Deligne-Mumford compactification. The author uses several test curves to compute the divisor class of \(\overline{\mathcal F} \subset \overline{\mathcal M_{1,3}}\) in terms of standard generators of \(\text{Pic}_{\mathbb Q} (\overline{\mathcal M_{1,3}})\). The author then computes some tautological intersection numbers on the \textit{gothic locus} \(\Omega \mathcal G \subset \Omega \mathcal M_4 (2,2,2,0,0,0)\) [loc. cit.], an \(\text{SL}_2 (\mathbb R)\)-invariant subvariety. He achieves this by observing that away from a proper closed set, the gothic locus is isomorphic to \(\mathcal Q \mathcal F \subset \mathcal Q_{1,3}\), the locus of quadratic differentials \((E,q)\) over \(\mathcal F\) such that \(\text{div} (q) = z_1+z_2+z_3-p_1-p_2-p_3\) where \(z_1+z_2+z_3\) is a fiber of \(\pi\). Working with \(\mathcal Q \mathcal F \subset \mathcal Q_{1,3}\), he examines the projectivization of the closure \(\mathbb P \mathcal Q \overline{\mathcal F} \subset \mathbb P \overline{\mathcal Q_{1,3}}\). The latter has tautological bundle \(\mathcal O (-1)\) with first Chern class \(\eta\). Letting \(\lambda_1\) be the first Chern class of the Hodge bundle, he computes the intersection numbers \(\eta^2 \lambda_1\) and \(\eta^3\) on \(\mathbb P \mathcal Q \overline{\mathcal F}\), giving numerical confirmation of a conjecture of \textit{D. Chen} et al. [``Masur-Veech volumes and intersection theory on moduli spaces of abelian differentials'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1912.02267}].