The integral Chow rings of $\mathcal A_3$ and $\mathcal M_3$

Abstract

Over $\mathbb C$, we compute the integral Chow ring of $\mathcal A_3$, the moduli stack of principally polarized abelian threefolds. Along the way, we compute the integral Chow ring of $\mathcal M_3$, the moduli stack of smooth genus-three curves. The ring $\CH(\mathcal A_3)$ is generated by the Chern classes of the Hodge bundle, along with three classes supported on the locus of decomposable abelian varieties, subject to 16 relations. The ring $\CH(\mathcal M_3)$ is generated by the Chern classes of the Hodge bundle, with five relations. In particular, we find that the top Chern class of the Hodge bundle, $λ_3$, has order 504 on $\mathcal A_3$ and 252 on $\mathcal M_3$. For $\mathcal A_3$, this removes the factor of 4 from the bound $252\mid\operatorname{ord}(λ_3)\mid 1008$ of Ekedahl and van der Geer.