The Gorenstein conjecture fails for the tautological ring of \(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{2,n}\) (Q2449841)

The tautological ring of the moduli space \(\mathcal M_g\) is a natural subring \(R^\bullet (\mathcal M_g)\) of the rational Chow ring. \textit{C. Faber} [in: Moduli of curves and abelian varieties. The Dutch intercity seminar on moduli. Aspects Math. E33, 109--129 (1999; Zbl 0978.14029)] proposed a series of conjectures giving a precise description of the structure of this ring. Most of these conjectures have now been proven in the work of many people. The most elusive part has been the ``Gorenstein'' part of the conjecture, which asserts that \(R^\bullet (\mathcal M_g)\) is a Gorenstein ring with socle in dimension \(g-2\). Indeed, there is a fair amount of evidence that this conjecture may be false in general, including known information about the relations among the generators. This paper gives what the authors call a ``smoking gun,'' showing that the tautological ring \(R^\bullet( \overline{\mathcal M}_{2,n})\) is not always Gorenstein; specifically they show this non-Gorenstein property for the smallest integer \(n\) such that there is a non tautological cohomology class of even degree on \(\overline{\mathcal M}_{2,n}\). This \(n\) is equal to one of 8, 12, 16 or 20.