Logarithmic series and Hodge integrals in the tautological ring. With an appendix by Don Zagier.

DOI10.1307/MMJ/1030132716MaRDI QIDQ5954559zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Carel Faber, Rahul Pandharipande

Publication date 4 February 2002

Published in Michigan Mathematical Journal (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0002112

zbMATH Keywords

algebraic curvesChow ringscombinatoricsenumerative geometryGromov-Witten theoryHodge integralsmoduli spaces

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Bell and Stirling numbers (11B73) (Equivariant) Chow groups and rings; motives (14C15) Families, moduli of curves (algebraic) (14H10) Enumerative problems (combinatorial problems) in algebraic geometry (14N10)

Abstract: We describe a new perspective on the intersection theory of the moduli space of curves involving both Virasoro constraints and Gorenstein conditions. The main result of the paper is the computation of a basic 1-point Hodge integral series occurring in the tautological ring of the moduli space of nonsingular curves. In the appendix by D. Zagier, "Polynomials arising from the tautological ring", a detailed study is made of certain polynomials whose coefficients are intersection numbers on moduli space. The paper and the appendix together provide proofs of all previously conjectured formulas for 1-point integrals in the tautological ring, and of natural extensions of these formulas as well.

Review text

Let \(M_g\) denote the coarse moduli space of non-singular complex algebraic curves of genus \(g\geq 2\). One of the most useful compactifications of \(M_g\) is given by the moduli space \(\overline M_g\) of Deligne-Mumford stable curves, which was constructed by \textit{P. Deligne} and \textit{M. Mumford} [Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 36, 75--100 (1969; Zbl 0181.48803)]. The intersection theory in this so-called Deligne-Mumford compactification \(\overline M_g\) of \(M_g\), that is, the study of the Chow ring \(A^*(\overline M_g)\) of \(\overline M_g\), has been a subject of central interest in algebraic geometry ever since, beginning with \textit{D. Mumford}'s pioneering work [in: Arithmetic and Geometry, II, Prog. Math. 36, 271--328 (1983; Zbl 0554.14008)]. In the past two decades, many remarkable properties of these Chow rings have been discovered, ranging from the existence of certain ``tautological classes in them up to striking numerical results related to (and predicted by) quantum field theories in physics. \textit{E. Witten's} famous conjecture in topological gravity theory [in: Proc. Conf., Cambridge/MA (USA) 1990, Surv. Differ. Geom., Suppl. J. Diff. Geom. 1, 243--310 (1991; Zbl 0757.53049)], \textit{M. Kontsevich's} spectacular proof of it [Commun. Math. Phys. 147, 1--23 (1992; Zbl 0756.35081)], and the avalanche of recent work in quantum cohomology theory, on Gromov-Witten invariants, and on the mirror symmetry phenomenon [\textit{D. A. Cox} and \textit{S. Katz}, Mirror symmetry and algebraic geometry (1999; Zbl 0951.14026)] not only utilized the enumerative geometry on compactified moduli spaces as a basic framework, but also propelled its rapid development in a crucial way. In this vein, the main goal of the paper under review is to describe a new perspective on the intersection theory of \(\overline M_g\) that combines advances from both the classical theory of degenerations in algebraic geometry and topological quantum field theory in mathematical physics. The central object of study is the so-called tautological ring \(R^*(\overline M_g)\) of \(\overline M_g\), i.e., the subring of \(A^*(\overline M_g)\) generated by the so far known tautological classes, together with its analogues \(R^*(\overline M_{g,n})\) for the moduli spaces \(\overline M_{g,n}\) of \(n\)-pointed stable curves. The authors consider the moduli filtration \(\overline M_g\supset M^c_g\supset M_g\supset\{[X_g]\}\), where \(X_g\) is a fixed smooth curve of genus \(g\) and \(M^c_g\) denotes the moduli space of stable curves with compact generalized Jacobian. There is an associated sequence of successive quotient maps of rational Chow rings, \[ A^*(\overline M_g)\to A^*(M^c_g)\to A^*(M_g)\to A^*(\{[X_g]\})\cong \mathbb{Q}, \] and the authors basically develop a uniform approach to the study of all these rings, and their related tautological rings with respect \(n\)-punctures, respectively, by successive descent methods. In fact, they show that the corresponding tautological rings in this sequence of quotient maps exhibit several parallel structures given by certain Hodge integrals of tautological classes, and that those can be effectively computed by a successive cutting-down method. Some special cases of these computational results can be found in the authors' earlier paper [Invent. Math. 139, No. 1, 173--199 (2000; Zbl 0960.14031)], whereas the subsequent paper under review largely completes the overall picture. The three main theorems of the present paper establish concrete integral formulae on \(\overline M_g\) which are of greatest significance. Namely, these formulae settle some earlier conjectures in this context reprove some related results in a unified way, strengthen evidence for Faber's conjectures on the structure of the tautological rings \(R^*(\overline M_g)\) as formulated in his previous paper [\textit{C. Faber}, in: Moduli of curves and abelian varieties. The Dutch intercity seminar on moduli. Braunschweig: Vieweg. Aspects Math. E33, 109--129 (1999; Zbl 0978.14029)], and reveal some surprising new combinatorial identies involving Stirling numbers of the second kind and Bernoulli numbers. In an appendix to the present paper, entitled ``Polynomials arising from the tautological ring, D. Zagier gives purely combinatorial proofs of these geometrically derived new identities. Without any doubt, the novel approach to the study of the tautological ring of the moduli spaces \(\overline M_g\), especially the amazing reduction of their enumerative geometry to polynomial combinatorics, has the character of a very promising new research program in this direction, including both algebraic geometry and quantum field theory.

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Cited in

(54)

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• Tautological ring of strata of differentials
• Relative maps and tautological classes
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• admcycles -- a Sage package for calculations in the tautological ring of the moduli space of stable curves
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• A remark on a conjecture of Hain and Looijenga
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• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3882570 (Why is no real title available?)
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• Polynomial families of tautological classes on \(\mathcal M^{\mathrm{rt}}_{g,n}\)
• Oort’s conjecture for $A_{g} \otimes {\mathbb {C}}$
• The ring of the moduli of curves of compact type
• Holomorphic anomaly equation for \((\mathbb{P}^2,E)\) and the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit of local \(\mathbb{P}^2\)
• Quadratic double ramification integrals and the noncommutative KdV hierarchy
• Stability in the homology of Deligne–Mumford compactifications
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• A GENERALISATION OF WITTEN’S CONJECTURE FOR THE PIXTON CLASS AND THE NONCOMMUTATIVE KDV HIERARCHY
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• Moduli spaces of residueless meromorphic differentials and the KP hierarchy
• Properties of Gromov-Witten invariants defined via global Kuranishi charts
• The structure of a local embedding and Chern classes of weighted blow-ups
• Universal constraints for Hodge integrals with target varieties
• Deformations of the Riemann hierarchy and the geometry of \(\overline{\mathcal{M}}^{g,n}\)
• The tautological ring of \(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g, n}\) is rarely Gorenstein
• Quadratic pseudostable Hodge integrals and Mumford's relation
• All the _1's on cyclic admissible covers
• New push-forward relation and universal equation for higher genus Gromov-Witten invariants
• On the Chow and cohomology rings of moduli spaces of stable curves
• Relative virtual localization and vanishing of tautological classes of moduli spaces of curves
• Towards a bihamiltonian structure for the double ramification hierarchy
• Generating functions for Hurwitz-Hodge integrals

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