# The Hodge polynomial of ℳ̄_{3,1}

## Abstract.

We give formulas for the Dolbeault numbers of $`\overline{}_{3,1}`$, using the first author’s calculations of the weights of the cohomology of $`_{2,2}`$ and $`_{2,3}`$ and the second author’s calculation of the weights of the cohomology of $`_{3,1}`$.

The authors thank the Scuola Normale, Pisa, where this paper was written. The work of the first author is partially funded by the NSF under grant DMS-9704320   

Recall that the Serre polynomial of a quasi-projective variety $`X`$, or more generally, of a Deligne-Mumford stack whose coarse moduli space is a quasi-projective variety, is the polynomial

$$𝖾(X)=\underset{i,j}{}u^iv^j\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}(1)^kh^{i,j}(H_c^k(X,)).$$

If a finite group $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ acts on $`X`$, the equivariant Serre polynomial $`𝖾_\mathrm{\Gamma }(X)`$ is defined in the same way, and takes values in $`R(\mathrm{\Gamma })`$. For background to all of this, see .

If $`X`$ is smooth and projective, or more generally, if $`X`$ is a smooth Deligne-Mumford stack whose coarse moduli space is projective, then the Serre polynomial of $`X`$ equals its Hodge polynomial:

$$𝖾(X)=\underset{i,j}{}(u)^i(v)^jh^{i,j}(X).$$

In particular, Poincaré duality implies the functional equation

$$𝖾(X)(u,v)=q^{dim(X)}𝖾(X)(u^1,v^1),$$

where throughout this paper, $`q`$ denotes $`uv`$. All of this is also true equivariantly.

If $`2g2+n>0`$, let $`_{g,n}`$ be the moduli stack of smooth projective curves of genus $`g`$ together with $`n`$ distinct marked points, and let $`\overline{}_{g,n}`$ be the moduli stack of stable curves of (arithmetic) genus $`g`$ with $`n`$ distinct marked smooth points ; these stacks are smooth, of dimension $`3g3+n`$, and the coarse moduli space of $`\overline{}_{g,n}`$ is projective. Furthermore, there is a flat map $`\overline{}_{g,n+1}\overline{}_{g,n}`$ which represents $`\overline{}_{g,n+1}`$ as the universal curve over $`\overline{}_{g,n}`$. In particular, $`\overline{}_{g,1}`$ is the universal stable curve of genus $`g`$. In this paper, we calculate $`𝖾(\overline{}_{3,1})`$. In particular, we show that $`h^{i,j}(\overline{}_{3,1})=0`$ unless $`i=j`$.

There is a standard identification of $`R(\mathrm{SS}_n)`$ with the space of symmetric functions (in an infinite number of variables $`\{x_ii0\}`$) of degree $`n`$, which we denote by $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_n`$. If $`X`$ is a quasi-projective variety with action of $`\mathrm{SS}_n`$, let $`𝖾_n(X)`$ be its Serre polynomial, thought of as an element of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }_n[u,v]`$.

There is a formula permitting the calculation of the $`\mathrm{SS}_n`$-equivariant Hodge polynomial of $`\overline{}_{g,n}`$ in terms of the $`\mathrm{SS}_m`$-equivariant Serre polynomials of the moduli stacks $`_{h,m}`$, where $`hg`$ and $`2h+m2g+n`$.

Let $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ be the completion of the ring of symmetric functions:

$$\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}=\underset{n=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\mathrm{\Lambda }_n.$$

We may identify $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ with the algebra of power series in the variables

$$h_n=\underset{i_1\mathrm{}i_n}{}x_{i_1}\mathrm{}x_{i_n}.$$

Introduce an auxilliary variable $`\lambda `$, and let $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}[[\lambda ]]`$ be the ring of power series in $`\lambda `$ with coefficients in the ring of symmetric functions. We may identify $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ with the algebra of power series in the variables

$$p_n=\underset{i=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}x_i^n.$$

The ring $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}[[\lambda ]]`$ is a (special) lambda-ring: the Adams operations on $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}[[\lambda ]]`$ are determined by the formulas $`\psi _k(p_n)=p_{kn}`$ and $`\psi _k(\lambda )=\lambda ^k`$. Let $`\mathrm{𝖤𝗑𝗉}`$ be the operation

$$\mathrm{𝖤𝗑𝗉}(f)=\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\sigma _k(f)=\mathrm{exp}\left(\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{\psi _k(f)}{k}\right):\lambda \widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}[[\lambda ]]1+\lambda \widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}[[\lambda ]],$$

and let $`\mathrm{𝖫𝗈𝗀}`$ be its inverse, given by the formula

$$\mathrm{𝖫𝗈𝗀}(f)=\underset{k=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{\mu (k)}{k}\psi _k(f):1+\lambda \widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}[[\lambda ]]\lambda \widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}[[\lambda ]].$$

Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ be the differential operator on $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}`$ (and by extension of coefficients, on $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}[[\lambda ]]`$) give by the formula

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=\underset{k=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\lambda ^{2k}\left(\frac{k}{2}\frac{^2}{p_k^2}+\frac{}{p_{2k}}\right).$$

We may define two elements of $`\widehat{\mathrm{\Lambda }}[[\lambda ]]`$, by the formulas

$`\mathrm{\Psi }`$ $`={\displaystyle \underset{2g2+n>0,n>0}{}}\lambda ^{2g2+n}𝖾_{\mathrm{SS}_n}(\overline{}_{g,n})\text{and}`$   
$`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ $`={\displaystyle \underset{2g2+n>0,n>0}{}}\lambda ^{2g2+n}𝖾_{\mathrm{SS}_n}(\overline{}_{g,n}).`$   
The following is Theorem (8.13) of .

###### Theorem 1.

$`\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{𝖫𝗈𝗀}\left(\mathrm{exp}(\mathrm{\Delta })\mathrm{𝖤𝗑𝗉}(\mathrm{\Phi })\right)`$

We see that to use this formula to calculate $`𝖾(\overline{}_{3,1})`$, we need the Serre polynomial of $`_{3,1}`$, together with the following equivariant Serre polynomials:

| $`_{g,n}`$ | $`𝖾_{\mathrm{SS}_n}(_{g,n})`$ |
| --- | --- |
| $`_{0,3}`$ | $`s_3`$ |
| $`_{0,4}`$ | $`qs_4s_{2^2}`$ |
| $`_{0,5}`$ | $`q^2s_5qs_{32}+s_{31^2}`$ |
| $`_{0,6}`$ | $`q^3s_6q^2s_{42}+q(s_{41^2}+s_{321})(s_{41^2}+s_{3^2}+s_{2^21^2})`$ |
| $`_{0,7}`$ | $`q^4s_7q^3s_{52}+q^2(s_{3^21}+s_{51^2}+s_{421})`$ |
|  | $`q(s_{51^2}+s_{43}+s_{421}+s_{2^31}+s_{41^3}+s_{3^21}+s_{321^2})`$ |
|  | $`+s_{321^2}+s_{52}+s_{31^4}+s_{32^2}+s_{421}`$ |
| $`_{1,1}`$ | $`qs_1`$ |
| $`_{1,2}`$ | $`q^2s_2`$ |
| $`_{1,3}`$ | $`q^3s_3s_{1^3}`$ |
| $`_{1,4}`$ | $`q^4s_4q^2s_4qs_{21^2}+s_{31}`$ |
| $`_{1,5}`$ | $`q^5s_5q^3(s_5+s_{41})+q^2(s_{32}s_{31^2})`$ |
|  | $`+q(s_{41}+s_{32}+s_{31^2})(s_5+s_{32}+s_{2^21}+s_{1^5})`$ |
| $`_{2,1}`$ | $`q^4s_1+q^3s_1`$ |
| $`_{2,2}`$ | $`q^5s_2+q^4(s_2+s_{1^2})s_2`$ |
| $`_{2,3}`$ | $`q^6s_3+q^5(s_3+s_{21})q^4s_3q(s_3+s_{21})`$ |

Here, if $`\mu =(\mu _1\mathrm{}\mu _{\mathrm{}})`$ is a partition of $`n`$, $`s_\mu `$ denotes the associated Schur polynomial, given by the Jacobi-Trudi formula $`s_\mu =det(h_{\mu _i+ji})`$. The above Serre polynomials are calculated in  (for genus $`0`$ and $`1`$) and  (for genus $`2`$).

Applying Theorem 1 (and taking advantage of J. Stembridge’s symmetric function package SF  for maple), we see that

$`𝖾(\overline{}_{3,1})`$ $`=𝖾(_{3,1})+3q^6+15q^5+29q^4+29q^3+16q^2+4q.`$   
###### Theorem 2.

The Hodge polynomial $`𝖾(\overline{}_{3,1})`$ of $`\overline{}_{3,1}`$ equals

$$q^7+5q^6+16q^5+29q^4+29q^3+16q^2+5q+1.$$

###### Proof.

We must show that $`𝖾(_{3,1})=q^7+2q^6+q^5+q+1`$. This almost, but not quite, follows from . There, it was shown that the polynomial

$$\underset{i,j,k}{}u^iv^jt^kh^{i,j}(H_c^k(_{3,1},))=q^7t^{14}+q^62t^{12}+q^5t^{10}+q(t^8+t^7)+2t^6,$$

which would imply that $`𝖾(_{3,1})=q^7+2q^6+q^5+2`$.

Unfortunately, there was a small error in that calculation; namely, two terms were omitted from the calculation (4.8) of the Poincaré polynomial of $`W\backslash T^{}`$ in case $`R`$ is of type $`E_7`$, associated to the Dynkin subdiagrams $`D_6\times A_1`$ and $`D_4\times A_1^2`$ of $`E_7`$. Once they are taken into account (the first contributes $`t^7`$, the second $`qt^8`$), we see that

$`{\displaystyle \underset{i,j,k}{}}u^iv^jt^kh^{i,j}(H^k(_{3,1},))`$ $`=q^7t^{14}+q^62t^{12}+q^5t^{10}+qt^8+t^7`$   
$`+(aqt+b)(t^7+t^6),`$   
where $`a`$ and $`b`$ equal $`0`$ or $`1`$. This proves the theorem. ∎