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We use a classification result of Chenevier and Lannes for algebraic automorphic representations together with a conjectural correspondence with $\ell$-adic absolute Galois representations to determine the Euler characteristics (with values in the Grothendieck group of such representations) of $\overline{\mathcal M}_{3,n}$ and $\mathcal M_{3,n}$ for $n \leq 14$ and of local systems $\mathbb{V}_{\lambda}$ on $\mathcal{A}_3$ for $|\lambda| \leq 16$., Comment: 14 pages, minor revision

We compute the number of F_q-points on M_{4,n}, for n less than or equal to 3, and show that it is a polynomial in q, using a sieve based on Hasse-Weil zeta functions. As an application, we prove that the rational singular cohomology groups of moduli spaces of stable curves of genus g with n marked points vanish in all odd degrees less than or equal to 9, for all g and n. Both results confirm predictions of the Langlands program, via the conjectural correspondence with polarized algebraic cuspidal automorphic representations of conductor 1, which are classified in low weight. Our vanishing result for odd cohomology resolves a problem posed by Arbarello and Cornalba in the 1990s., Comment: 31 pages, minor revisions, to appear in Ann. Math

We show how one can use the representation theory of ternary quartics to construct all vector-valued Siegel modular forms and Teichm\"uller modular forms of degree 3. The relation between the order of vanishing of a concomitant on the locus of double conics and the order of vanishing of the corresponding modular form on the hyperelliptic locus plays an important role. We also determine the connection between Teichm\"uller cusp forms on \overline{M}_g and the middle cohomology of symplectic local systems on M_g. In genus 3, we make this explicit in a large number of cases., Comment: 34 pages. In an appendix (joint work of G. Farkas, R. Pandharipande, and the second author) it is shown that Teichm\"uller modular forms extend to \overline{M}_g for g at least 3. Other minor changes

We prove a formula, conjectured by Zagier, for the $S_n$-equivariant Euler characteristic of the top weight cohomology of $M_{g,n}$., Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures; v3: minor revisions, final version to appear in Amer. J. Math

We use covariants of binary sextics to describe the structure of modules of scalar-valued or vector-valued Siegel modular forms of degree 2 with character, over the ring of scalar-valued Siegel modular forms of even weight. For a modular form defined by a covariant we express the order of vanishing along the locus of products of elliptic curves in terms of the covariant., Comment: 18 pages

We extend Igusa's description of the relation between invariants of binary sextics and Siegel modular forms of degree two to a relation between covariants and vector-valued Siegel modular forms of degree two. We show how this relation can be used to effectively calculate the Fourier expansions of Siegel modular forms of degree two., Comment: 19 pages

Let the bielliptic locus be the closure in the moduli space of stable curves of the locus of smooth curves that are double covers of genus 1 curves. In this paper we compute the class of the bielliptic locus in \bar{M}_3 in terms of a standard basis of the rational Chow group of codimension-2 classes in the moduli space. Our method is to test the class on the hyperelliptic locus: this gives the desired result up to two free parameters, which are then determined by intersecting the locus with two surfaces in \bar{M}_3., Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures

We give an explicit conjectural formula for the motivic Euler characteristic of an arbitrary symplectic local system on the moduli space A_3 of principally polarized abelian threefolds. The main term of the formula is a conjectural motive of Siegel modular forms of a certain type; the remaining terms admit a surprisingly simple description in terms of the motivic Euler characteristics for lower genera. The conjecture is based on extensive counts of curves of genus three and abelian threefolds over finite fields. It provides a lot of new information about vector-valued Siegel modular forms of degree three, such as dimension formulas and traces of Hecke operators. We also use it to predict several lifts from genus 1 to genus 3, as well as lifts from G_2 and new congruences of Harder type., Comment: Version 2: Several changes in Section 10 on congruences. Version 3: References added, some minor changes. Accepted for publication in Selecta Mathematica. 41 pages

After recalling the various tautological algebras of the moduli space of curves and some of its partial compactifications and stating several well-known results and conjectures concerning these algebras, we prove that the natural extension to the case of pointed curves of a 1996 conjecture of Hain and Looijenga is true if and only if two of the stated conjectures are true., Comment: 6 pages. To appear in Annales de l'Institut Fourier (Grenoble)

We study the cohomology of certain local systems on moduli spaces of principally polarized abelian surfaces with a level 2 structure. The trace of Frobenius on the alternating sum of the \'etale cohomology groups of these local systems can be calculated by counting the number of pointed curves of genus 2 with a prescribed number of Weierstrass points over the given finite field. This cohomology is intimately related to vector-valued Siegel modular forms. The corresponding scheme in level 1 was carried out in [FvdG]. Here we extend this to level 2 where new phenomena appear. We determine the contribution of the Eisenstein cohomology together with its S_6-action for the full level 2 structure and on the basis of our computations we make precise conjectures on the endoscopic contribution. We also make a prediction about the existence of a vector-valued analogue of the Saito-Kurokawa lift. Assuming these conjectures that are based on ample numerical evidence, we obtain the traces of the Hecke-operators T(p) for p < 41 on the remaining spaces of `genuine' Siegel modular forms. We present a number of examples of 1-dimensional spaces of eigenforms where these traces coincide with the Hecke eigenvalues. We hope that the experts on lifting and on endoscopy will be able to prove our conjectures., Comment: Added a section on Harder's conjectural congruences. Some minor changes. 16 pages

Every complex plane curve C determines a subscheme S of the $P^8$ of 3x3 matrices, whose projective normal cone (PNC) captures subtle invariants of C. In "Limits of PGL(3)-translates of plane curves, I" we obtain a set-theoretic description of the PNC and thereby we determine all possible limits of families of plane curves whose general element is isomorphic to C. The main result of this article is the determination of the PNC as a cycle; this is an essential ingredient in our computation in "Linear orbits of arbitrary plane curves" of the degree of the PGL(3)-orbit closure of an arbitrary plane curve, an invariant of natural enumerative significance., Comment: 22 pages. Minor revision. Final version

In a series of two preprints, Y.-P. Lee studied relations satisfied by all formal Gromov-Witten potentials, as defined by A. Givental. He called them "universal relations" and studied their connection with tautological relations in the cohomology ring of moduli spaces of stable curves. Building on Y.-P. Lee's work, we give a simple proof of the fact that every tautological relation gives rise to a universal relation (which was also proved by Y.-P. Lee modulo certain results announced by C. Teleman). In particular, this implies that in any semi-simple Gromov-Witten theory where arbitrary correlators can be expressed in genus 0 correlators using only tautological relations, the formal and the geometric Gromov-Witten potentials coincide. As the most important application, we show that our results suffice to deduce the statement of a 1991 Witten conjecture on r-spin structures from the results obtained by Givental for the corresponding formal Gromov-Witten potential. The conjecture in question states that certain intersection numbers on the moduli space of r-spin structures can be arranged into a power series that satisfies the r-KdV (or r-th higher Gelfand-Dikii) hierarchy of partial differential equations., Comment: 46 pages, 7 figures, A discussion of the analyticity of Gromov-Witten potentials and a more careful description of Givental's group action added in Section 5; minor changes elsewhere

We study the limits of PGL(3) translates of an arbitrary plane curve, giving a description of all possible limits of a given curve and computing the multiplicities of corresponding components in the normal cone to the base scheme of a related linear system. This information is a key step in the computation of the degree of the closure of the linear orbit of an arbitrary plane curve. Our analysis recovers and extends results obtained by Aldo Ghizzetti in the 1930's., Comment: Minor changes. 68 pages, 16 figures

We prove that in characteristic p>0 the locus of stable curves of p-rank at most f is pure of codimension g-f in the moduli space of stable curves. Then we consider the Prym map and analyze it using tautological classes. We study the locus of curves with an etale double cover of p-rank 0 in some detail. In particular, in genus 2 we obtain a formula for the number of such curves. We end with several examples illustrating our formula., Comment: 20 pages, 1 figure. Final version, to appear in J. Reine Angew. Math

We consider the cohomology of local systems on the moduli space of curves of genus 2 and the moduli space of abelian surfaces. We give an explicit formula for the Eisenstein cohomology and a conjectural formula for the endoscopic contribution. We show how counting curves over finite fields provides us with detailed information about Siegel modular forms., Comment: 7 pages

The `linear orbit' of a plane curve of degree $d$ is its orbit in $\P^{d(d+3)/2}$ under the natural action of $\PGL(3)$. In this paper we obtain an algorithm computing the degree of the closure of the linear orbit of an arbitrary plane curve, and give explicit formulas for plane curves with irreducible singularities. The main tool is an intersection@-theoretic study of the projective normal cone of a scheme determined by the curve in the projective space $\P^8$ of $3\times 3$ matrices; this expresses the degree of the orbit closure in terms of the degrees of suitable loci related to the limits of the curve. These limits, and the degrees of the corresponding loci, have been established in previous work., Comment: 33 pages, AmS-TeX 2.1

The `linear orbit' of a plane curve of degree d is its orbit in P^{d(d+3)/2} under the natural action of PGL(3). We classify curves with positive dimensional stabilizer, and we compute the degree of the closure of the linear orbits of curves supported on unions of lines. Together with the results of math.AG/9805020, this encompasses the enumerative geometry of all plane curves with small linear orbit. This information will serve elsewhere as an ingredient in the computation of the degree of the orbit closure of an arbitrary plane curve., Comment: 16 pages, one figure. Proof of main result expanded, references added

The `linear orbit' of a plane curve of degree d is its orbit in the projective space of dimension d(d+3)/2 parametrizing such curves under the natural action of PGL(3). In this paper we compute the degree of the closure of the linear orbits of most curves with positive dimensional stabilizers. Our tool is a nonsingular variety dominating the orbit closure, which we construct by a blow-up sequence mirroring the sequence yielding an embedded resolution of the curve. The results given here will serve as an ingredient in the computation of the analogous information for arbitrary plane curves. Linear orbits of smooth plane curves are studied in [A-F1]., Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures, AmS-TeX 2.1, requires xy-pic and epsf

The purpose of this paper is to formulate a number of conjectures giving a rather complete description of the tautological ring of M_g and to discuss the evidence for these conjectures.

Looijenga recently proved that the tautological ring of M_g vanishes in degree d>g-2 and is at most one-dimensional in degree g-2, generated by the class of the hyperelliptic locus. Here we show that K_{g-2} is non-zero on M_g. The proof uses the Witten conjecture, proven by Kontsevich. With similar methods, we expect to be able to prove some (possibly all) of the identities in degree g-2 in the tautological ring that are part of the author's conjectural explicit description of the ring.

We describe algorithms for computing the intersection numbers of divisors and of Chern classes of the Hodge bundle on the moduli spaces of stable pointed curves. We also discuss the implementations and the results obtained. There are several applications. We discuss one in particular: the calculation of the projection in the tautological ring of the moduli space of abelian varieties of the class of the locus of Jacobians., Comment: Minor changes, references added. To appear in: Proceedings of the Euroconference on Algebraic Geometry, Warwick 1996 (Cambridge University Press). 14 pages, plain TeX

We determine necessary conditions for ample divisors in arbitrary genus as well as for very ample divisors in genus 2 and 3. We also compute the intersection numbers $\lambda^9$ and $\lambda_{g-1}^3$ in genus 4. The latter number is relevant for counting curves of higher genus on manifolds, cf. the recent work of Bershadsky et al., Comment: 13 pages, no figures. To appear in "Parameter Spaces", Banach Center Publications, volume in preparation. plain tex

The group PGL(3) of linear transformations of the projective plane acts naturally on the projective space parametrizing curves of a given degree. In this note we begin the study of the orbits of smooth curves under this action: we construct a resolution of the closure of the orbit of a given curve, and we use it to compute its degree. This turns out to depend only on the degree of the curve, the order of its automorphism group, and on the number and type of its flexes. This paper will appear on the Journal of Algebraic Geometry., Comment: 25 pages. Tex dialect: amstex (pre-2.0)

The group PGL(2) of linear transformations of the projective line acts naturally on the d-dimensional projective space P^d parametrizing configurations (`d-tuples') of points on the line. In this note we are concerned with the orbits of this action of PGL(2) on P^d. The closure of each orbit is a projective subvariety of P^d of which we determine the degree, the `boundary'--i.e., the complement of an orbit in its closure--, and the multiplicity at points of the boundary. These results are used to provide a complete classification of the non-singular orbit closures, and criteria for an orbit closure to be non-singular in codimension 1., Comment: Tex dialect: `old' amstex 14 pages