No Arabic abstract
We prove an explicit formula for the total Chern character of the Verlinde bundle over the moduli space of pointed stable curves in terms of tautological classes. The Chern characters of the Verlinde bundles define a semisimple CohFT (the ranks, given by the Verlinde formula, determine a semisimple fusion algebra). According to Telemans classification of semisimple CohFTs, there exists an element of Giventals group transforming the fusion algebra into the CohFT. We determine the element using the first Chern class of the Verlinde bundle on the moduli space of nonsingular curves and the projective flatness of the Hitchin connection.
We construct the Hilbert compactification of the universal moduli space of semistable vector bundles over smooth curves. The Hilbert compactification is the GIT quotient of some open part of an appropriate Hilbert scheme of curves in a Grassmannian. It has all the properties asked for by Teixidor.
This article accompanies my lecture at the 2015 AMS summer institute in algebraic geometry in Salt Lake City. I survey the recent advances in the study of tautological classes on the moduli spaces of curves. After discussing the Faber-Zagier relations on the moduli spaces of nonsingular curves and the kappa rings of the moduli spaces of curves of compact type, I present Pixtons proposal for a complete calculus of tautological classes on the moduli spaces of stable curves. Several open questions are discussed. An effort has been made to condense a great deal of mathematics into as few pages as possible with the hope that the reader will follow through to the end.
For $4 mid L$ and $g$ large, we calculate the integral Picard groups of the moduli spaces of curves and principally polarized abelian varieties with level $L$ structures. In particular, we determine the divisibility properties of the standard line bundles over these moduli spaces and we calculate the second integral cohomology group of the level $L$ subgroup of the mapping class group (in a previous paper, the author determined this rationally). This entails calculating the abelianization of the level $L$ subgroup of the mapping class group, generalizing previous results of Perron, Sato, and the author. Finally, along the way we calculate the first homology group of the mod $L$ symplectic group with coefficients in the adjoint representation.
We compute the homotopy type of the moduli space of flat, unitary connections over aspherical surfaces, after stabilizing with respect to the rank of the underlying bundle. Over the orientable surface M^g, we show that this space has the homotopy type of the infinite symmetric product of M^g, generalizing a well-known fact for the torus. Over a non-orientable surface, we show that this space is homotopy equivalent to a disjoint union of two tori, whose common dimension corresponds to the rank of the first (co)homology group of the surface. Similar calculations are provided for products of surfaces, and show a close analogy with the Quillen-Lichtenbaum conjectures in algebraic K-theory. The proofs utilize Tyler Lawsons work in deformation K-theory, and rely heavily on Yang-Mills theory and gauge theory.
The slope of the moduli space of genus g curves is bounded from below by 60/(g+4) via a descendent calculation.