The rational Chow rings of moduli spaces of hyperelliptic curves with marked points

Abstract

We determine the rational Chow ring of the moduli space $\mathcal{H}_{g,n}$ of $n$-pointed smooth hyperelliptic curves of genus $g$ when $n \leq 2g+6$. We also show that the Chow ring of the partial compactification $\mathcal{I}_{g,n}$, parametrizing $n$-pointed irreducible nodal hyperelliptic curves, is generated by tautological divisors. Along the way, we improve Casnati's result that $\mathcal{H}_{g,n}$ is rational for $n \leq 2g+8$ to show $\mathcal{H}_{g,n}$ is rational for $n \leq 3g+5$.