The fiber product of the Torelli map with any product $\mathcal{A}_{g_1}\times \dots \times \mathcal{A}_{g_k}\to\mathcal{A}_g$ is reduced

Abstract

We prove that the fiber product of the Torelli map $t\colon \mathcal{M}^{ct}_g \to \mathcal{A}_g$ with any product $\mathcal{A}_{g_1}\times\dots\times \mathcal{A}_{g_k} \to \mathcal{A}_g$ for $g=g_1+\dots+g_k$ has a reduced scheme structure. As a consequence, letting $d=\text{codim}(t^*[\mathcal{A}_{g_1}\times\dots\times \mathcal{A}_{g_k}])$, we find that the class $t^*[\mathcal{A}_{g_1}\times\dots\times \mathcal{A}_{g_k}]\in \mathsf{CH}^{d}(\mathcal{M}^{ct}_g)$ is tautological. In particular, we obtain $t^*[\mathcal{A}_{g_1}\times\dots\times \mathcal{A}_{g_k}] = 0$ for $d > 2g-3.$