We obtain an explicit expression for the number of ramified coverings of the sphere by the torus with given ramification type for a small number of ramification points, and conjecture this to be true for an arbitrary number of ramification points. In addition, the conjecture is proved for simple coverings of the sphere by the torus. We obtain corresponding expressions for surfaces of higher genera for a small number of ramification points, and conjecture the general form for this number in terms of a symmetric polynomial that appears to be new. The approach involves the analysis of the action of a transposition to derive a system of linear partial differential equations that give the generating series for the desired numbers.

The number of ramified coverings of the sphere by the torus and surfaces of higher genera

We show that the Masur–Veech volumes and area Siegel–Veech constants can be obtained using intersection theory on strata of Abelian differentials with prescribed orders of zeros. As applications, we evaluate their large genus limits and compute the saddle connection Siegel–Veech constants for all strata. We also show that the same results hold for the spin and hyperelliptic components of the strata.

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Masur–Veech volumes and intersection theory on moduli spaces of Abelian differentials

We express the Masur-Veech volume and the area Siegel-Veech constant of the moduli space of meromorphic quadratic differential with simple poles as polynomials in the intersection numbers of psi-classes supported on the boundary cycles of the Deligne-Mumford compactification of the moduli space of curves. Our formulae are derived from lattice point count involving the Kontsevich volume polynomials that also appear in Mirzakhani's recursion for the Weil-Petersson volumes of the moduli space of bordered hyperbolic Riemann surfaces. 
A similar formula for the Masur-Veech volume (though without explicit evaluation) was obtained earlier by Mirzakhani through completely different approach. We prove further result: up to an explicit normalization factor depending only on the genus and on the number of cusps, the density of the orbit of any simple closed multicurve computed by Mirzakhani coincides with the density of square-tiled surfaces having horizontal cylinder decomposition associated to the simple closed multicurve. 
We study the resulting densities in more detail in the special case when there are no cusps. In particular, we compute explicitly the asymptotic frequencies of separating and non-separating simple closed geodesics on a closed hyperbolic surface of genus g for all small genera g and we show that in large genera the separating closed geodesics are exponentially less frequent. 
We conclude with detailed conjectural description of combinatorial geometry of a random simple closed multicurve on a surface of large genus and of a random square-tiled surface of large genus. This description is conditional to the conjectural asymptotic formula for the Masur-Veech volume in large genera and to the conjectural uniform asymptotic formula for certain sums of intersection numbers of psi-classes in large genera.

Masur-Veech volumes, frequencies of simple closed geodesics and intersection numbers of moduli spaces of curves

We study the Masur-Veech volumes $MV_{g,n}$ of the principal stratum of the moduli space of quadratic differentials of unit area on curves of genus $g$ with $n$ punctures. We show that the volumes $MV_{g,n}$ are the constant terms of a family of polynomials in $n$ variables governed by the topological recursion/Virasoro constraints. This is equivalent to a formula giving these polynomials as a sum over stable graphs, and retrieves a result of \cite{Delecroix} proved by combinatorial arguments. Our method is different: it relies on the geometric recursion and its application to statistics of hyperbolic lengths of multicurves developed in \cite{GRpaper}. We also obtain an expression of the area Siegel--Veech constants in terms of hyperbolic geometry. The topological recursion allows numerical computations of Masur--Veech volumes, and thus of area Siegel--Veech constants, for low $g$ and $n$, which leads us to propose conjectural formulas for low $g$ but all $n$. We also relate our polynomials to the asymptotic counting of square-tiled surfaces with large boundaries.

Topological recursion for Masur-Veech volumes

We describe a conjectural formula via intersection numbers for the Masur-Veech volumes of strata of quadratic differentials with prescribed zero orders, and we prove the formula for the case when the zero orders are odd. For the principal strata of quadratic differentials with simple zeros, the formula reduces to compute the top Segre class of the quadratic Hodge bundle, which can be further simplified to certain linear Hodge integrals. An appendix proves that the intersection of this class with $\psi$-classes can be computed by Eynard-Orantin topological recursion. 
As applications, we analyze numerical properties of Masur-Veech volumes, area Siegel-Veech constants and sums of Lyapunov exponents of the principal strata for fixed genus and varying number of zeros, which settles the corresponding conjectures due to Grivaux-Hubert, Fougeron, and elaborated in [the7]. We also describe conjectural formulas for area Siegel-Veech constants and sums of Lyapunov exponents for arbitrary affine invariant submanifolds, and verify them for the principal strata.

Masur-Veech volumes and intersection theory: the principal strata of quadratic differentials

A direct relation between the enumeration of ordinary maps and that of fully simple maps first appeared in the work of the first and last authors. The relation is via monotone Hurwitz numbers and was originally proved using Weingarten calculus for matrix integrals. The goal of this paper is to present two independent proofs that are purely combinatorial and generalise in various directions, such as to the setting of stuffed maps and hypermaps. The main motivation to understand the relation between ordinary and fully simple maps is the fact that it could shed light on fundamental, yet still not well-understood, problems in free probability and topological recursion.

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Relating ordinary and fully simple maps via monotone Hurwitz numbers

We study the combinatorial Teichm\"uller space and construct on it global coordinates, analogous to the Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates on the ordinary Teichm\"uller space. We prove that these coordinates form an atlas with piecewise linear transition functions, and constitute global Darboux coordinates for the Kontsevich symplectic structure on top-dimensional cells. We then set up the geometric recursion in the sense of Andersen-Borot-Orantin adapted to the combinatorial setting, which naturally produces mapping class group invariant functions on the combinatorial Teichm\"uller spaces. We establish a combinatorial analogue of the Mirzakhani-McShane identity fitting this framework. As applications, we obtain geometric proofs of Witten conjecture/Kontsevich theorem (Virasoro constraints for $\psi$-classes intersections) and of Norbury's topological recursion for the lattice point count in the combinatorial moduli spaces. These proofs arise now as part of a unified theory and proceed in perfect parallel to Mirzakhani's proof of topological recursion for the Weil-Petersson volumes. We move on to the study of the spine construction and the associated rescaling flow on the Teichm\"uller space. We strengthen former results of Mondello and Do on the convergence of this flow. In particular, we prove convergence of hyperbolic Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates to the combinatorial ones with some uniformity. This allows us to effectively carry natural constructions on the Teichm\"uller space to their analogues in the combinatorial spaces. For instance, we obtain the piecewise linear structure on the combinatorial Teichm\"uller space as the limit of the smooth structure on the Teichm\"uller space. To conclude, we provide further applications to the enumerative geometry of multicurves, Masur-Veech volumes and measured foliations in the combinatorial setting.

On the Kontsevich geometry of the combinatorial Teichmüller space

We study the correlators W g,n arising from Orlov–Scherbin 2-Toda tau functions with rational content-weight G ( z ) , at arbitrary values of the two sets of time parameters. Combinatorially, they correspond to generating functions of weighted Hurwitz numbers and ( m, r ) -factorisations of permutations. When the weight function is polynomial, they are generating functions of constellations on surfaces in which two full sets of degrees (black/white) are entirely controlled, and in which internal faces are allowed in addition to boundaries. We give the spectral curve (the “disk” function W 0 , 1 , and the “cylinder” function W 0 , 2 ) for this model, generalising Eynard’s solution of the 2-matrix model which corresponds to G ( z ) = 1 + z , by the addition of arbitrarily many free parameters. Our method relies both on the Albenque–Bouttier combinatorial proof of Eynard’s result by slice decompositions, which is strong enough to handle the polynomial case, and on algebraic arguments. Building on this, we establish the topological recursion (TR) for the model. Our proof relies on the fact that TR is already known at time zero (or, combinatorially, when the underlying graphs have only boundaries, and no internal faces) by work of Bychkov–Dunin-Barkowski–Kazarian–Shadrin (or Alexandrov–Chapuy–Eynard–Harnad for the polynomial case), and on the general idea of deformation of spectral curves due to Eynard and Orantin, which we make explicit in this case. As a result of TR, we obtain strong structure results for all ﬁxed-genus generating functions. Our techniques also cover the case where G ( z ) is a rational function times an exponential (con-taining in particular the case of classical Hurwitz numbers).

Topological recursion for Orlov-Scherbin tau functions, and constellations with internal faces

A BSTRACT . The Witten r -spin class deﬁnes a non-semisimple cohomological ﬁeld theory. Pandharipande, Pixton and Zvonkine studied two special shifts of the Witten class along two semisimple directions of the associated Dubrovin–Frobenius manifold using the Givental–Teleman reconstruction theorem. We show that the R -matrix and the translation of these two speciﬁc shifts can be constructed from the solutions of two differential equations that generalise the classical Airy differential equation. Using this, we prove that the descendant intersection theory of the shifted Witten classes satisﬁes topological recursion on two 1-parameter families of spectral curves. By taking the limit as the parameter goes to zero, we prove that the descendant intersection theory of the Witten r -spin class can be computed by topological recursion on the r -Airy spectral curve. We ﬁnally show that this proof sufﬁces to deduce Witten’s r -spin conjecture, already proved by Faber, Shadrin and Zvonkine, which claims that the generating series of r -spin intersection numbers is the tau function of the r -KdV hierarchy that satisﬁes the string equation. R constructed to the family of differential equations r ) t

Séverin Charbonnier

Papers

Topological recursion for Masur-Veech volumes

Relating ordinary and fully simple maps via monotone Hurwitz numbers

On the Kontsevich geometry of the combinatorial Teichmüller space

Topological recursion for Orlov-Scherbin tau functions, and constellations with internal faces

Shifted Witten classes and topological recursion