Tautological classes of strata of exact differentials

Abstract

Strata of exact differentials are moduli spaces for differentials on Riemann surfaces with vanishing absolute periods. Our main result is that classes of closures of strata of exact differentials inside the moduli space of multi-scale differentials lie in the divisorial tautological ring. By relating exact differentials to rational functions we obtain a new proof that classes of Hurwitz spaces are tautological and a new method for computations.