Changes of variables in ELSV-type formulas

Abstract

In [5] I.P. Goulden, D.M. Jackson, and R. Vakil formulated a conjecture relating certain Hurwitz numbers (enumerating ramified coverings of the sphere) to the intersection theory on a conjectural Picard variety. We are going to use their formula to study the intersection theory on this variety (if it is ever to be constructed) by methods close to those of M. Kazarian and S. Lando in [7]. In particular, we prove a Witten-Kontsevich-type theorem relating the intersection theory and integrable hierarchies. We also extend the results of [7] to include the Hodge integrals over the moduli spaces, involving one lambda-class.