Buryak-Okounkov formula for the $n$-point function and a new proof of the Witten conjecture

Abstract

We identify the formulas of Buryak and Okounkov for the n-point functions of the intersection numbers of psi-classes on the moduli spaces of curves. This allows us to combine the earlier known results and this one into a principally new proof of the famous Witten conjecture / Kontsevich theorem, where the link between the intersection theory of the moduli spaces and integrable systems is established via the geometry of double ramification cycles.