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We study the appearances of $\mathsf{LS}_{12}$ and $\mathsf{S}_{16}$ in the weight-graded compactly supported cohomology of moduli spaces of curves. As applications, we prove new nonvanishing results for the middle cohomology groups of $\mathcal{M}_9$ and $\mathcal{M}_{11}$ and give evidence to support the conjecture that the dimension fo $H^{2g + k}_c(\mathcal{M}_g)$ grows at least exponentially with $g$ for almost all $k$., Comment: 28 pages

We state and prove a form of Bott periodicity (for $U(n)$) in an algebraic setting (so, $GL(n)$) which makes sense over $\mathbb{Z}$, which also specializes to Bott periodicity in the usual sense (hence giving yet another proof of classical Bott periodicity).

We prove that the number of curves of a fixed genus g over finite fields is a polynomial function of the size of the field if and only if g is at most 8. Furthermore, we determine for each positive genus g the smallest n such that the moduli space of curves of genus g with n marked points does not have polynomial point count. A key ingredient in the proofs, which is also a new result of independent interest, is the computation of the thirteenth cohomology group of the moduli spaces of stable curves of genus g with n marked points, for all g and n., Comment: 61 pages

In this paper, we describe the Brill--Noether theory of a general smooth plane curve and a general curve $C$ on a Hirzebruch surface of fixed class. It is natural to study the line bundles on such curves according to the splitting type of their pushforward along projection maps $C \to \mathbb{P}^1$. Inspired by Wood's parameterization of ideal classes in rings associated to binary forms, we further refine the stratification of line bundles $L$ on $C$ by fixing the splitting types of both $L$ and $L(\Delta)$, where $\Delta \subset C$ is the intersection of $C$ with the directrix of the Hirzebruch surface. Our main theorem determines the dimensions of these locally closed strata and, if the characteristic of the ground field is zero, proves that they are smooth.

Let $\mathscr{J}^d_g \to \mathscr{M}_g$ be the universal Picard stack parametrizing degree $d$ line bundles on genus $g$ curves, and let $\mathscr{J}^d_{2,g}$ be its restriction to locus of hyperelliptic curves $\mathscr{H}_{2,g} \subset \mathscr{M}_g$. We determine the rational Chow ring of $\mathscr{J}^d_{2,g}$ for all $d$ and $g$. In particular, we prove it is generated by restrictions of tautological classes on $\mathscr{J}^d_g$ and we determine all relations among the restrictions of such classes. We also compute the integral Picard group of $\mathscr{J}^d_{2,g}$, completing (and extending to the $\mathrm{PGL}_2$-equivariant case) prior work of Erman and Wood. As a corollary, we prove that $\mathscr{J}^d_{2,g}$ is either a trivial $\mathbb{G}_m$-gerbe over its rigidification, or has Brauer class of order $2$, depending on the parity of $d - g$., Comment: 28 pages

We study the restriction of Brill-Noether loci to the gonality stratification of the moduli space of curves of fixed genus. As an application, we give new proofs that Brill-Noether loci with $\rho=-1$ have distinct support, and for fixed $r$ give lower bounds on when one direction of the non-containments of the Maximal Brill-Noether Loci Conjecture hold for Brill-Noether loci of rank $r$ linear systems. Using these techniques, we also show that Brill-Noether loci corresponding to rank $2$ linear systems are maximal as soon as $g\ge 28$ and prove the Maximal Brill-Noether Loci Conjecture for $g=20$., Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures. Comments welcome! Lemma 1.1 has been updated, as well as some results in Section 4

We study collections of subrings of $H^*(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n})$ that are closed under the tautological operations that map cohomology classes on moduli spaces of smaller dimension to those on moduli spaces of larger dimension and contain the tautological subrings. Such extensions of tautological rings are well-suited for inductive arguments and flexible enough for a wide range of applications. In particular, we confirm predictions of Chenevier and Lannes for the $\ell$-adic Galois representations and Hodge structures that appear in $H^k(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n})$ for $k = 13$, $14$, and $15$. We also show that $H^4(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n})$ is generated by tautological classes for all $g$ and $n$, confirming a prediction of Arbarello and Cornalba from the 1990s. In order to establish the final bases cases needed for the inductive proofs of our main results, we use Mukai's construction of canonically embedded pentagonal curves of genus 7 as linear sections of an orthogonal Grassmannian and a decomposition of the diagonal to show that the pure weight cohomology of $\mathcal{M}_{7,n}$ is generated by algebraic cycle classes, for $n \leq 3$., Comment: v3: 33 pages. Minor changes. Final version to appear in Forum Math. Pi

We generalize the Embedding Theorem of Eisenbud-Harris from classical Brill-Noether theory to the setting of Hurwitz-Brill-Noether theory. More precisely, in classical Brill-Noether theory, the embedding theorem states that a general linear series of degree d and rank r on a general curve of genus g is an embedding if r is at least 3. If \(f \colon C \to \mathbb{P}^1\) is a general cover of degree k, and L is a line bundle on C, recent work of the authors shows that the splitting type of \(f_* L\) provides the appropriate generalization of the pair (r, d) in classical Brill--Noether theory. In the context of Hurwitz-Brill-Noether theory, the condition that r is at least 3 is no longer sufficient to guarantee that a general such linear series is an embedding. We show that the additional condition needed to guarantee that a general linear series |L| is an embedding is that the splitting type of \(f_* L\) has at least three nonnegative parts. This new extra condition reflects the unique geometry of k-gonal curves, which lie on scrolls in \(\mathbb{P}^r\).

The Chow ring of $\mathcal{M}_g$ is known to be generated by tautological classes for $g \leq 9$. Meanwhile, the first example of a non-tautological class on $\mathcal{M}_{g}$ is the fundamental class of the bielliptic locus in $\mathcal{M}_{12}$, due to van Zelm. It remains open if the Chow rings of $\mathcal{M}_{10}$ and $\mathcal{M}_{11}$ are generated by tautological classes. In these cases, a natural first place to look is at the bielliptic locus. In genus $10$, it is already known that classes supported on the bielliptic locus are tautological. Here, we prove that all classes supported on the bielliptic locus are tautological in genus $11$. By Looijenga's vanishing theorem, this implies that they all vanish., Comment: 14 pages, comments welcome!

We prove that the rational cohomology group $H^{11}(\bar{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n})$ vanishes unless $g = 1$ and $n \geq 11$. We show furthermore that $H^k(\bar{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n})$ is pure Hodge-Tate for all even $k \leq 12$ and deduce that $\# \bar{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}(\mathbb{F}_q)$ is surprisingly well approximated by a polynomial in $q$. In addition, we use $H^{11}(\bar{\mathcal{M}}_{1,11})$ and its image under Gysin push-forward for tautological maps to produce many new examples of moduli spaces of stable curves with nonvanishing odd cohomology and non-tautological algebraic cycle classes in Chow cohomology., Comment: 18 pages. v2: Final version, to appear in Forum of Mathematics, Sigma

In this paper, we ask: for which $(g, n)$ is the rational Chow or cohomology ring of $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ generated by tautological classes? This question has been fully answered in genus $0$ by Keel (the Chow and cohomology rings are tautological for all $n$) and genus $1$ by Belorousski (the rings are tautological if and only if $n \leq 10$). For $g \geq 2$, work of van Zelm shows the Chow and cohomology rings are not tautological once $2g + n \geq 24$, leaving finitely many open cases. Here, we prove that the Chow and cohomology rings of $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ are isomorphic and generated by tautological classes for $g = 2$ and $n \leq 9$ and for $3 \leq g \leq 7$ and $2g + n \leq 14$. For such $(g, n)$, this implies that the tautological ring is Gorenstein and $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ has polynomial point count., Comment: Version 2: simplified and revised arguments in Section 10. 42 pages, comments welcome!

We determine the rational Chow ring of the moduli space $\mathcal{H}_{g,n}$ of $n$-pointed smooth hyperelliptic curves of genus $g$ when $n \leq 2g+6$. We also show that the Chow ring of the partial compactification $\mathcal{I}_{g,n}$, parametrizing $n$-pointed irreducible nodal hyperelliptic curves, is generated by tautological divisors. Along the way, we improve Casnati's result that $\mathcal{H}_{g,n}$ is rational for $n \leq 2g+8$ to show $\mathcal{H}_{g,n}$ is rational for $n \leq 3g+5$., Comment: 28 pages, comments welcome!

We compute the Picard groups with integral coefficients of the Hurwitz stacks parametrizing degree $4$ and $5$ covers of $\mathbb{P}^1$. As a consequence, we also determine the integral Picard groups of the Hurwitz stacks parametrizing simply branched covers. For simple branching, the Picard groups are finite, with order depending on the genus., Comment: 21 pages, split off from arXiv:2103.09902v1 because of length, added Corollary 1.3

While there is much work and many conjectures surrounding the intersection theory of the moduli space of curves, relatively little is known about the intersection theory of the Hurwitz space $\mathcal{H}_{k, g}$ parametrizing smooth degree $k$, genus $g$ covers of $\mathbb{P}^1$. Let $k = 3, 4, 5$. We prove that the rational Chow rings of $\mathcal{H}_{k,g}$ stabilize in a suitable sense as $g$ tends to infinity. In the case $k = 3$, we completely determine the Chow rings for all $g$. We also prove that the rational Chow groups of the simply branched Hurwitz space $\mathcal{H}^s_{k,g} \subset \mathcal{H}_{k,g}$ are zero in codimension up to roughly $g/k$. In subsequent work, results developed in this paper are used to prove that the Chow rings of $\mathcal{M}_7, \mathcal{M}_8,$ and $\mathcal{M}_9$ are tautological., Comment: 45 pages, split off from arXiv:2103.09902v1 because of length

We consider a conjecture that identifies two types of base point free divisors on $\bar{M}_{0,n}$. The first arises from Gromov-Witten theory of a Grassmannian. The second comes from first Chern classes of vector bundles associated to simple Lie algebras in type A. Here we reduce this conjecture on $\bar{M}_{0,n}$ to the same statement for $n=4$. A reinterpretation leads to a proof of the conjecture on $\bar{M}_{0,n}$ for a large class, and we give sufficient conditions for the non-vanishing of these divisors.

We determine the integral Chow and cohomology rings of the moduli stack $\mathcal{B}_{r,d}$ of rank $r$, degree $d$ vector bundles on $\mathbb{P}^1$ bundles. We first show that the rational Chow ring $A_{\mathbb{Q}}^*(\mathcal{B}_{r,d})$ is a free $\mathbb{Q}$-algebra on $2r+1$ generators. The isomorphism class of this ring happens to be independent of $d$. Then, we prove that the integral Chow ring $A^*(\mathcal{B}_{r,d})$ is torsion-free and provide multiplicative generators for $A^*(\mathcal{B}_{r,d})$ as a subring of $A_{\mathbb{Q}}^*(\mathcal{B}_{r,d})$. From this description, we see that $A^*(\mathcal{B}_{r,d})$ is not finitely generated as a $\mathbb{Z}$-algebra. Finally, the cohomology ring of $\mathcal{B}_{r,d}$ is isomorphic to its Chow ring.

The rational Chow ring of the moduli space $\mathcal{M}_g$ of curves of genus $g$ is known for $g \leq 6$. Here, we determine the rational Chow rings of $\mathcal{M}_7, \mathcal{M}_8,$ and $\mathcal{M}_9$ by showing they are tautological. One key ingredient is intersection theory on Hurwitz spaces of degree $4$ and $5$ covers of $\mathbb{P}^1$, as developed by the authors in [1]. The main focus of this paper is a detailed geometric analysis of special tetragonal and pentagonal covers whose associated vector bundles on $\mathbb{P}^1$ are so unbalanced that they fail to lie in the large open subset considered in [1]. In genus $9$, we use work of Mukai [23] to present the locus of hexagonal curves as a global quotient stack, and, using equivariant intersection theory, we show its Chow ring is generated by restrictions of tautological classes., Comment: 48 pages, final version, to appear in Journal of Algebraic Geometry

Let $\mathcal{H}_{k,g}$ be the Hurwitz stack parametrizing degree $k$, genus $g$ covers of $\mathbb{P}^1$. We define the tautological ring of $\mathcal{H}_{k,g}$ and we show that all Chow classes, except possibly those supported on the locus of "factoring covers," are tautological up to codimension roughly $g/k$ when $k \leq 5$. The set-up developed here is also used in our subsequent work, wherein we prove new results about the structure of the Chow ring for $k \leq 5$., Comment: 30 pages. This paper is part of our work on low-degree Hurwitz spaces, which has been split off from a previous version because of length

Let $C$ be a curve of genus $g$. A fundamental problem in the theory of algebraic curves is to understand maps $C \to \mathbb{P}^r$ of specified degree $d$. When $C$ is general, the moduli space of such maps is well-understood by the main theorems of Brill--Noether theory. Despite much study over the past three decades, a similarly complete picture has proved elusive for curves of fixed gonality. Here we complete such a picture, by proving analogs of all of the main theorems of Brill--Noether theory in this setting. As a corollary, we prove a conjecture of Eisenbud and Schreyer regarding versal deformation spaces of vector bundles on $\mathbb{P}^1$., Comment: Weakened characteristic hypotheses

Trigonal curves provide an example of Brill-Noether special curves. Theorem 1.3 of [9] characterizes the Brill-Noether theory of general trigonal curves and the refined stratification by Brill-Noether splitting loci, which parametrize line bundles whose push forward to $\mathbb{P}^1$ has a specified splitting type. This note describes the refined stratification for all trigonal curves. Given the Maroni invariant of a trigonal curve, we determine the dimensions of all Brill-Noether splitting loci and describe their irreducible components. When the dimension is positive, these loci are connected, and if furthermore the Maroni invariant is $0$ or $1$, they are irreducible.

Recent work of Kass--Wickelgren gives an enriched count of the $27$ lines on a smooth cubic surface over arbitrary fields. Their approach using $\mathbb{A}^1$-enumerative geometry suggests that other classical enumerative problems should have similar enrichments, when the answer is computed as the degree of the Euler class of a relatively orientable vector bundle. Here, we consider the closely related problem of the $28$ bitangents to a smooth plane quartic. However, it turns out the relevant vector bundle is not relatively orientable and new ideas are needed to produce enriched counts. We introduce a fixed "line at infinity," which leads to enriched counts of bitangents that depend on their geometry relative to the quartic and this distinguished line., Comment: 17 pages, comments welcome!

Let $f\colon C \rightarrow \mathbb{P}^1$ be a degree $k$ genus $g$ cover. The stratification of line bundles $L \in \mathrm{Pic}^d(C)$ by the splitting type of $f_*L$ is a refinement of the stratification by Brill-Noether loci $W^r_d(C)$. We prove that for general degree $k$ covers, these strata are smooth of the expected dimension. In particular, this determines the dimensions of all irreducible components of $W^r_d(C)$ for a general $k$-gonal curve (there are often components of different dimensions), extending results of Pflueger and Jensen-Ranganathan. The results here apply over any algebraically closed field., Comment: removed characteristic hypotheses

Given a vector bundle on a $\mathbb{P}^1$ bundle, the base is stratified by degeneracy loci measuring the spitting type of the vector bundle restricted to each fiber. The classes of these degeneracy loci in the Chow ring or cohomology ring of the base are natural invariants characterizing the degenerations of the vector bundle. When these degeneracy loci occur in the expected codimension, we find their classes. This yields universal formulas for degeneracy classes in terms of naturally arising vector bundles on the base. Our results hold over arbitrary fields of any characteristic.

Given an arithmetic function $a: \mathbb{N} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$, one can associate a naturally defined, doubly infinite family of Jensen polynomials. Recent work of Griffin, Ono, Rolen, and Zagier shows that for certain families of functions $a: \mathbb{N} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}$, the associated Jensen polynomials are eventually hyperbolic (i.e., eventually all of their roots are real). This work proves Chen, Jia, and Wang's conjecture that the partition Jensen polynomials are eventually hyperbolic as a special case. Here, we make this result explicit. Let $N(d)$ be the minimal number such that for all $n \geq N(d)$, the partition Jensen polynomial of degree $d$ and shift $n$ is hyperbolic. We prove that $N(3)=94$, $N(4)=206$, and $N(5)=381$, and in general, that $N(d) \leq (3d)^{24d} (50d)^{3d^{2}}$.

As autonomous robots increasingly become part of daily life, they will often encounter dynamic environments while only having limited information about their surroundings. Unfortunately, due to the possible presence of malicious dynamic actors, it is infeasible to develop an algorithm that can guarantee collision-free operation. Instead, one can attempt to design a control technique that guarantees the robot is not-at-fault in any collision. In the literature, making such guarantees in real time has been restricted to static environments or specific dynamic models. To ensure not-at-fault behavior, a robot must first correctly sense and predict the world around it within some sufficiently large sensor horizon (the prediction problem), then correctly control relative to the predictions (the control problem). This paper addresses the control problem by proposing Reachability-based Trajectory Design for Dynamic environments (RTD-D), which guarantees that a robot with an arbitrary nonlinear dynamic model correctly responds to predictions in arbitrary dynamic environments. RTD-D first computes a Forward Reachable Set (FRS) offline of the robot tracking parameterized desired trajectories that include fail-safe maneuvers. Then, for online receding-horizon planning, the method provides a way to discretize predictions of an arbitrary dynamic environment to enable real-time collision checking. The FRS is used to map these discretized predictions to trajectories that the robot can track while provably not-at-fault. One such trajectory is chosen at each iteration, or the robot executes the fail-safe maneuver from its previous trajectory which is guaranteed to be not at fault. RTD-D is shown to produce not-at-fault behavior over thousands of simulations and several real-world hardware demonstrations on two robots: a Segway, and a small electric vehicle., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures

Let $X \subset \mathbb{P}^n$ be a smooth hypersurface. Given a sequence of integers $\vec{a} = (a_1, \ldots, a_{n-2})$ with $a_1 \leq \cdots \leq a_{n-2}$, let $F_{\vec{a}}(X)$ be the parameter space of lines $L$ on $X$ such that $N_{L/X} \cong \mathcal{O}(a_1) \oplus \cdots \oplus \mathcal{O}(a_{n-2})$. The loci $F_{\vec{a}}(X)$ form a stratification of the Fano scheme of lines on $X$. We show that for general hypersurfaces, the $F_{\vec{a}}(X)$ have the expected dimension and, in this case, compute the class of $\overline{F_{\vec{a}}(X)}$ in the Chow ring of the Grassmannian of lines in $\mathbb{P}^n$. For certain splitting types $\vec{a}$, we also provide non-trivial upper bounds on the dimension of $F_{\vec{a}}(X)$ that hold for all smooth $X$.

In a recent paper, Duncan, Griffin and Ono provide exact formulas for the coefficients of McKay-Thompson series and use them to find asymptotic expressions for the distribution of irreducible representations in the moonshine module $V^\natural = \bigoplus_n V_n^\natural$. Their results show that as $n$ tends to infinity, $V_n^\natural$ is dominated by direct sums of copies of the regular representation. That is, if we view $V_n^\natural$ as a module over the group ring $\mathbb{Z}[\mathbb{M}]$, the free-part dominates. A natural problem, posed at the end of the aforementioned paper, is to characterize the distribution of irreducible representations in the non-free part. Here, we study asymptotic formulas for the coefficients of McKay-Thompson series to answer this question. We arrive at an ordering of the series by the magnitude of their coefficients, which corresponds to various contributions to the distribution. In particular, we show how the asymptotic distribution of the non-free part is dictated by the column for conjugacy class 2A in the monster's character table. We find analogous results for the other monster modules $V^{(-m)}$ and $W^\natural$ studied by Duncan, Griffin, and Ono.

The partition function $p(n)$, which counts the number of partitions of a positive integer $n$, is widely studied. Here, we study partition functions $p_S(n)$ that count partitions of $n$ into distinct parts satisfying certain congruence conditions. A shifted partition identity is an identity of the form $p_{S_1}(n-H) = p_{S_2}(n)$ for all $n$ in some arithmetic progression. Several identities of this type have been discovered, including two infinite families found by Alladi. In this paper, we use the theory of modular functions to determine the necessary and sufficient conditions for such an identity to exist. In addition, for two specific cases, we extend Alladi's theorem to other arithmetic progressions.

In a recent paper, Rose proves that certain generalized sum-of-divisor functions are quasi-modular forms for some congruence subgroup and conjectures that these forms are quasi-modular for $\Gamma_1(n)$. Here, we prove this conjecture.

In [4] and [5], Folsom presents a family of modular units as higher-level analogues of the Rogers-Ramanujan $q$-continued fraction. These units are constructed from analytic solutions to the higher-order $q$-recurrence equations of Selberg. Here, we consider another family of modular units, which are quotients of Hall-Littlewood $q$-series that appear in the generalized Rogers-Ramanujan type identities of [6]. In analogy with the results of Folsom, we provide a formula for the rank of the subgroup these units generate and show that their specializations at the cusp $0$ generate a subgroup of the cyclotomic unit group of the same rank. In addition, we prove that their singular values generate the same class fields as those of Folsom's units.

In a recent paper, Griffin, Ono and Warnaar present a framework for Rogers-Ramanujan type identities using Hall-Littlewood polynomials to arrive at expressions of the form \[\sum_{\lambda : \lambda_1 \leq m} q^{a|\lambda|}P_{2\lambda}(1,q,q^2,\ldots ; q^{n}) = \text{"Infinite product modular function"}\] for $a = 1,2$ and any positive integers $m$ and $n$. A recent paper of Rains and Warnaar presents further Rogers-Ramanujan type identities involving sums of terms $q^{|\lambda|/2}P_{\lambda}(1,q,q^2,\ldots;q^n)$. It is natural to attempt to reformulate these various identities to match the well-known Andrews-Gordon identities they generalize. Here, we find combinatorial formulas to replace the Hall-Littlewood polynomials and arrive at such expressions.

In an important paper, Zagier proved that certain half-integral weight modular forms are generating functions for traces of polynomials in the $j$-function. It turns out that Zagier's work makes it possible to algorithmically compute Hilbert class polynomials using a canonical family of modular forms of weight $\frac{3}{2}$. We generalize these results and consider Haupmoduln for levels $1, 2, 3, 5, 7,$ and $13$. We show that traces of singular values of polynomials in Haupmoduln are again described by coefficients of half-integral weight modular forms. This realization makes it possible to algorithmically compute class polynomials.

In their work, Serre and Swinnerton-Dyer study the congruence properties of the Fourier coefficients of modular forms. We examine similar congruence properties, but for the coefficients of a modified Taylor expansion about a CM point $\tau$. These coefficients can be shown to be the product of a power of a constant transcendental factor and an algebraic integer. In our work, we give conditions on $\tau$ and a prime number $p$ that, if satisfied, imply that $p^m$ divides the algebraic part of all the Taylor coefficients of $f$ of sufficiently high degree. We also give effective bounds on the largest $n$ such that $p^m$ does not divide the algebraic part of the $n^{\text{th}}$ Taylor coefficient of $f$ at $\tau$ that are sharp under certain additional hypotheses., Comment: 16 pages, to appear in Int. J. Number Theory

A fusion category of rank $4$ has either four self-dual objects or exactly two self-dual objects. We study fusion categories of rank $4$ with exactly two self-dual objects, giving nearly a complete classification of those based ring that admit pseudo-unitary categorification. More precisely, we show that if $\mathcal{C}$ is such a fusion category, then its Grothendieck ring $K(\mathcal{C})$ must be one of seven based rings, six of which have know categorifications. In doing so, we classify all based rings associated with near-group categories of the group $\mathbb{Z}/3\mathbb{Z}$.