Compactified universal jacobian and the double ramification cycle

Abstract

Using the compactified universal jacobian over the moduli space of stable marked curves, we give an expression in terms of natural classes of the zero section of the compactified universal jacobian the (rational) Chow ring. After extending variants of the Abel-Jacobi map to a locus containing curves of treelike type we give a formula for the pullback of the said zero section along these extensions. The same approach is also applied to recover known formulas for the pullback of theta divisors to the moduli space of marked stable curves.