Abstract
This survey grew out of notes accompanying a cycle of lectures at the workshop Modern Trends in Gromov–Witten Theory, in Hannover. The lectures are devoted to interactions between Hurwitz theory and Gromov–Witten theory, with a particular eye to the contributions made to the understanding of the Double Ramification Cycle, a cycle in the moduli space of curves that compactifies the double Hurwitz locus. We explore the algebro-combinatorial properties of single and double Hurwitz numbers, and the connections with intersection theoretic problems on appropriate moduli spaces. We survey several results by many groups of people on the subject, but, perhaps more importantly, collect a number of conjectures and problems which are still open.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abramovich D., Caporaso L., Payne S.: The tropicalization of the moduli space of curves. Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 48, 765–809 (2015)
Atiyah M.F., Bott R.: The moment map and equivariant cohomology. Topology 23, 1–28 (1984)
Bertrand B., Brugallé E., Mikhalkin G.: Tropical open Hurwitz numbers. Rend. Semin. Mat. Univ. Padova 125, 157–171 (2011)
A. Buryak, S. Shadrin, L. Spitz and D. Zvonkine, Integrals of \({\psi}\)-classes over double ramification cycles, preprint, arXiv:1211.5273.
L. Caporaso, Gonality of algebraic curves and graphs, In: Algebraic and Complex Geometry, Springer Proc. Math. Stat., 71, Springer-Verlag, 2014, pp. 77–108.
Cavalieri R., Johnson P., Markwig H.: Tropical Hurwitz numbers. J. Algebraic Combin. 32, 241–265 (2010)
Cavalieri R., Johnson P., Markwig H.: Wall crossings for double Hurwitz numbers. Adv. Math. 228, 1894–1937 (2011)
Cavalieri R., Marcus S.: Geometric perspective on piecewise polynomiality of double Hurwitz numbers. Canad. Math. Bull. 57, 749–764 (2014)
R. Cavalieri, H. Markwig and D. Ranganathan, Tropical compactification and the Gromov–Witten theory of \({\mathbb{P}^1}\), preprint, arXiv:1410.2837.
R. Cavalieri, H. Markwig and D. Ranganathan, Tropicalizing the space of admissible covers, preprint, arXiv:1401.4626.
R. Cavalieri and E. Miles, Riemann Surfaces and Algebraic Curves. A First Course in Hurwitz Theory, London Math. Soc. Stud. Texts, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, to appear (2016).
Ekedahl T., Lando S., Shapiro M., Vainshtein A.: Hurwitz numbers and intersections on moduli spaces of curves. Invent. Math. 146, 297–327 (2001)
Fantechi B., Pandharipande R.: Stable maps and branch divisors. Compositio Math. 130, 345–364 (2002)
W. Fulton and J. Harris, Representation Theory, Grad. Texts in Math., 129, Springer-Verlag, 1991.
Goulden I.P., Jackson D.M.: Transitive factorisations into transpositions and holomorphic mappings on the sphere. Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 125, 51–60 (1997)
I.P. Goulden, D.M. Jackson and R. Vakil, Towards the geometry of double Hurwitz numbers, preprint, arXiv:math/0309440v1.
I.P. Goulden, D.M. Jackson and R. Vakil, A short proof of the \({\lambda_g}\)-conjecture without Gromov–Witten theory: Hurwitz theory and the moduli of curves, preprint, arXiv:math/0604297.
Graber T., Pandharipande R.: Localization of virtual classes. Invent. Math. 135, 487–518 (1999)
Graber T., Vakil R.: On the tautological ring of \({\overline{\mathscr{M}}_{g,n}}\). Turkish J. Math. 25, 237–243 (2001)
Graber T., Vakil R.: Hodge integrals and Hurwitz numbers via virtual localization. Compositio Math. 135, 25–36 (2003)
T. Graber and R. Vakil, Relative virtual localization and vanishing of tautological classes on moduli spaces of curves, preprint, arXiv:math/0309227.
S. Grushevsky and D. Zakharov, The double ramification cycle and the theta divisor, preprint, arXiv:1206.7001.
S. Grushevsky and D. Zakharov, The zero section of the universal semiabelian variety, and the double ramification cycle, preprint, arXiv:1206.3534.
R. Hain, Normal functions and the geometry of moduli spaces of curves, preprint, arXiv:1102.4031.
J. Harris and I. Morrison, Moduli of Curves, Grad. Texts in Math., 187, Springer-Verlag, 1998.
K. Hori, S. Katz, A. Klemm, R. Pandharipande, R. Thomas, C. Vafa, R. Vakil and E. Zaslow, Mirror Symmetry, Clay Math. Monogr., 1, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 2003.
Hurwitz A.: Ueber Riemann’sche Flächen mit gegebenen Verzweigungspunkten. Math. Ann. 39, 1–60 (1891)
F. Janda, R. Pandharipande, A. Pixton and D. Zvonkine, Double ramification cycles on the moduli spaces of curves, preprint, arXiv:1602.04705.
P. Johnson, Hurwitz numbers, ribbon graphs, and tropicalization, In: Tropical Geometry and Integrable Systems, Contemp. Math., 580, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 2012, pp. 55–72.
Johnson P., Pandharipande R., Tseng H.-H.: Abelian Hurwitz–Hodge integrals. Michigan Math. J. 60, 171–198 (2011)
Kazarian M.: KP hierarchy for Hodge integrals. Adv. Math. 221, 1–21 (2009)
J. Kock, Notes on psi classes, http://mat.uab.es/~kock/GW/notes/psi-notes.pdf, 2001.
J. Kock, Frobenius Algebras and 2D Topological Quantum Field Theories, London Math. Soc. Stud. Texts, 59, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 2004.
S. Marcus and J. Wise, Stable maps to rational curves and the relative Jacobian, preprint, arXiv:1310.5981.
D. Mumford, Toward an enumerative geometry of the moduli space of curves, In: Arithmetic and Geometry. II, Progr. Math., 36, Birkhäuser Boston, Boston, MA, 1983, pp. 271–326.
A. Okounkov and R. Pandharipande, Gromov–Witten theory, Hurwitz numbers, and matrix models, In: Algebraic Geometry—Seattle 2005. Part 1, Proc. Sympos. Pure Math., 80, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 2009, pp. 325–414.
R. Pandharipande, Cycles on the moduli space of curves, 2015, https://sites.google.com/site/2015summerinstitute/home/videos_notes.
Pandharipande R., Pixton A., Zvonkine D.: Relations on \({\overline{\mathscr{M}_{g,n}}}\) via 3-spin structures. J. Amer. Math. Soc. 28, 279–309 (2015)
Shadrin S.: On the structure of Goulden–Jackson–Vakil formula. Math. Res. Lett. 16, 703–710 (2009)
Shadrin S., Shapiro M., Vainshtein A.: Chamber behavior of double Hurwitz numbers in genus 0. Adv. Math. 217, 79–96 (2008)
Shadrin S., Zvonkine D.: Changes of variables in ELSV-type formulas. Michigan Math. J. 55, 209–228 (2007)
N. Tarasca, Double total ramifications for curves of genus 2, preprint, arXiv:1401.3057.
R. Vakil, The moduli space of curves and Gromov–Witten theory, In: Enumerative Invariants in Algebraic Geometry and String Theory, Lecture Notes in Math., 1947, Springer-Verlag, 2008, pp. 143–198.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by: Hiraku Nakajima
About this article
Cite this article
Cavalieri, R. Hurwitz theory and the double ramification cycle. Jpn. J. Math. 11, 305–331 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11537-016-1495-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11537-016-1495-3