English

A new cohomology class on the moduli space of curves

Algebraic Geometry 2023-09-27 v4 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

We define a collection Θg,nH4g4+2n(Mg,n,Q)\Theta_{g,n}\in H^{4g-4+2n}(\overline{\cal M}_{g,n},\mathbb{Q}) for 2g2+n>02g-2+n>0 of cohomology classes that restrict naturally to boundary divisors. We prove that the intersection numbers Mg,nΘg,ni=1nψimi\int_{\overline{\cal M}_{g,n}}\Theta_{g,n}\prod_{i=1}^n\psi_i^{m_i} can be recursively calculated. We conjecture that a generating function for these intersection numbers is a tau function of the KdV hierarchy. This is analogous to the conjecture of Witten proven by Kontsevich that a generating function for the intersection numbers Mg,ni=1nψimi\int_{\overline{\cal M}_{g,n}}\prod_{i=1}^n\psi_i^{m_i} is a tau function of the KdV hierarchy.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1712.03662,
  title  = {A new cohomology class on the moduli space of curves},
  author = {Paul Norbury},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1712.03662},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

53 pages, added rigidity result which uniquely determines initial value of classes, KdV relation is now a conjecture true up to genus 7