A combinatorial algorithm related to the geometry of the moduli space of pointed curves

Abstract

As pointed out in Arbarello and Cornalba ( J. Alg. Geom. 5 (1996), 705–749), a theorem due to Di Francesco, Itzykson, and Zuber (see Di Francesco, Itzykson, and Zuber, Commun. Math. Phys. 151 (1993), 193–219) should yield new relations among cohomology classes of the moduli space of pointed curves. The coefficients appearing in these new relations can be determined by the algorithm we introduce in this paper.