Equivariant counts of points of the moduli spaces of pointed hyperelliptic curves (Q845260)

The subject of the paper under review is the cohomology of the moduli space \({\mathcal H}_{g,n}\) of smooth hyperelliptic curves of genus \(g\) with \(n\) distinct marked points. The action of the symmetric group \(S_n\) by permuting the marked points endows both the Betti and the \(\ell\)-adic cohomology with a natural structure of \(S_n\)-representation that respects mixed Hodge structures, respectively, the structure as Galois representation. In this paper, the \(S_n\)-equivariant Euler characteristic of the (étale, resp., Betti) cohomology of \({\mathcal H}_{g,n}\) in the Grothendieck group of rational Hodge structures (respectively, Galois representations) is computed for all \(g\) and for \(n\leq 7\). This result is achieved by performing an \(S_n\)-equivariant count of the number of points of the moduli space \({\mathcal H}_{g,n}\) defined over finite fields. This approach leads to the discovery that the number of points of \({\mathcal H}_{g,n}\) satisfies recurrence relations, so that the \(S_n\)-equivariant count of points of \({\mathcal H}_{g,n}\) for \(n\) fixed and \(g\) small determines the \(S_n\)-equivariant count of points for all \(g\). In particular, for \(n\leq 7\) the formulas for the \(S_n\)-count of points of \({\mathcal H}_{g,n}\) are obtained starting from known results for genus \(0\) and \(1\). In all these cases, the count of points gives a polynomial in the number elements of the field. For \(n\) small, these polynomials are independent of the characteristic of the finite field; the dependence starts for \(n=6\). The results on the count of points determine the \(S_n\)-equivariant Euler characteristic of \(\ell\)-adic cohomology by the Lefschetz trace formula. The corresponding result for the Betti cohomology of the complex moduli space follows from comparison theorems. As an application, the author computes the cohomology of the moduli space of stable curves of genus \(2\) and \(n\) marked points with \(n\leq 7\). This extends the results of \textit{E. Getzler} [in: Integrable systems and algebraic geometry. Proceedings of the 41st Taniguchi symposium, Kobe, Japan, June 30-July 4, 1997, and in Kyoto, Japan, July 7-11, 1997. Singapore: World Scientific. 73--106 (1998; Zbl 1021.81056)] for \(n\leq 3\). Furthermore, if \(g\) is sufficiently large, there is a uniform description of the part of sufficiently high weight of the Euler characteristic of the \(\ell\)-adic cohomology of \({\mathcal H}_g\) with coefficients in certain local systems, which suggests the existence of stabilization phenomena in the cohomology.