The main goal of this paper is to prove the following two conjectures for genus up to two:
1. Witten's conjecture on the relations between higher spin curves and Gelfand--Dickey hierarchy.
2. Virasoro conjecture for target manifolds with conformal semisimple Frobenius manifolds.
The main technique used in the proof is the invariance of tautological equations under loop group action.
The aim of Part II is to explore the technique of invariance of tautological equations in the realm of Gromov--Witten theory. The main result is a proof of Invariance Theorem (Invariance Conjecture~1 in [14]), via the techniques from Gromov--Witten theory. It establishes some general inductive structure of the tautological rings, and provides a new tool to the study of this area.
In the Gromov-Witten theory of a target curve we consider descendent integrals against the virtual fundamental class relative to the forgetful morphism to the moduli space of curves. We show that cohomology classes obtained in this way lie in the tautological ring.
Virasoro constraints for orbifold Gromov-Witten theory are described. These constraints are applied to the degree zreo, genus zero orbifold Gromov-Witten potentials of the weighted projective stacks $\mathbb{P}(1,N)$, $\mathbb{P}(1,1,N)$ and $\mathbb{P}(1,1,1,N)$ to obtain formulas of descendant cyclic Hurwitz-Hodge integrals.
Pandharipande-Pixton-Zvonkine's proof of Pixton's generalized Faber-Zagier relations in the tautological ring of $\overline M_{g, n}$ has started the study of tautological relations from semisimple cohomological field theories. In this article we compare the relations obtained in the examples of the equivariant Gromov-Witten theory of projective spaces and of spin structures. We prove an equivalence between the $\mathbb P^1$- and 3-spin relations, and more generally between restricted $\mathbb P^m$-relations and similarly restricted (m + 2)-spin relations. We also show that the general $\mathb…
In a series of two preprints, Y.-P. Lee studied relations satisfied by all formal Gromov-Witten potentials, as defined by A. Givental. He called them "universal relations" and studied their connection with tautological relations in the cohomology ring of moduli spaces of stable curves. Building on Y.-P. Lee's work, we give a simple proof of the fact that every tautological relation gives rise to a universal relation (which was also proved by Y.-P. Lee modulo certain results announced by C. Teleman). In particular, this implies that in any semi-simple Gromov-Witten theory where arbitrary correl…
We give two recursions for computing top intersections of tautological classes on blowups of moduli spaces of genus-one curves. One of these recursions is analogous to the well-known string equation. As shown in previous papers, these numbers are useful for computing genus-one enumerative invariants of projective spaces and Gromov-Witten invariants of complete intersections.
Relations among tautological classes on the moduli space of stable curves are obtained via the study of Witten's r-spin theory for higher r. In order to calculate the quantum product, a new formula relating the r-spin correlators in genus 0 to the representation theory of sl2 is proven. The Givental-Teleman classification of CohFTs is used at two special semisimple points of the associated Frobenius manifold. At the first semisimple point, the R-matrix is exactly solved in terms of hypergeometric series. As a result, an explicit formula for Witten's r-spin class is obtained (along with tautolo…
This is an expository paper based on the results in [12] and [16]. The main goal is to prove the following two conjectures for genus up to two. (1) Witten's conjecture on the relations between higher spin curves and Gelfand-Dickey Hierarchies. (2) Virasoro conjecture for conformal semisimple Frobenius manifolds.
We prove that stationary Gromov-Witten invariants of $\bp^1$ arise as the Eynard-Orantin invariants of the spectral curve $x=z+1/z$, $y=\ln{z}$. As an application we show that tautological intersection numbers on the moduli space of curves arise in the asymptotics of large degree Gromov-Witten invariants of $\bp^1$.
We describe a formalism based on quantization of quadratic hamiltonians and symplectic actions of loop groups which provides a convenient home for most of known general results and conjectures about Gromov-Witten invariants of compact symplectic manifolds and, more generally, Frobenius structures at higher genus. We state several results illustrating the formalism and its use. In particular, we establish Virasoro constraints for semisimple Frobenius structures and outline a proof of the Virasoro conjecture for Gromov -- Witten invariants of complex projective spaces and other Fano toric manifo…
Virasoro constraints are applied to degree zero Gromov-Witten theory of weighted projective stacks $\mathbb{P}(1,N)$ and $\mathbb{P}(1,1,N)$ to obtain formulas of descendant cyclic Hurwitz-Hodge integrals in higher genera.
The Virasoro conjecture proposed by Eguchi-Hori-Xiong and S. Katz predicts that the generating function of Gromov-Witten invariants is annihilated by infinitely many differential operators which form a half branch of the Virasoro algebra. In this paper, we study the genus-1 case of the conjecture. In particular, we will give some necessary and sufficient conditions for the genus-1 Virasoro conjecture.
Witten's class on the moduli space of 3-spin curves defines a (non-semisimple) cohomological field theory. After a canonical modification, we construct an associated semisimple CohFT with a non-trivial vanishing property obtained from the homogeneity of Witten's class. Using the classification of semisimple CohFTs by Givental-Teleman, we derive two main results. The first is an explicit formula in the tautological ring of Mbar_{g,n} for Witten's class. The second, using the vanishing property, is the construction of relations in the tautological ring of Mbar_{g,n}. Pixton has previously conjec…
In this ``experimental'' research, we use known topological recursion relations in genera-zero, -one, and -two to compute the n-point descendant Gromov-Witten invariants of P^1 for arbitrary degrees and low values of n. The results are consistent with the Virasoro conjecture and also lead to explicit computations of all Hodge integrals in these genera. We also derive new recursion relations for simple Hurwitz numbers similar to those of Graber and Pandharipande.
In this paper, we show that the generating function for linear Hodge integrals over moduli spaces of stable maps to a nonsingular projective variety $X$ can be connected to the generating function for Gromov-Witten invariants of $X$ by a series of differential operators $\{ L_m \mid m \geq 1 \}$ after a suitable change of variables. These operators satisfy the Virasoro bracket relation and can be seen as a generalization of the Virasoro operators appeared in the Virasoro constraints for Kontsevich-Witten tau-function in the point case. This result is an extension of the work in \cite{LW} for t…
The Virasoro conjecture is a conjectured sequence of relations among the descendent Gromov-Witten invariants of a smooth projective variety in all genera; the only varieties for which it is known to hold are a point (Kontsevich) and Calabi-Yau threefolds (S. Katz). We review the statement of the conjecture and its proof in genus 0, following Eguchi, Hori and Xiong. This version incorporates many changes and improvements compared with the first, and a small number of misprints from the second. It will appear in the AMS volume "Hirzebruch 70", edited by P. Pragacz et al.
In this letter,we present our conjecture on the connection between the Kontsevich--Witten and the Hurwitz tau-functions. The conjectural formula connects these two tau-functions by means of the $GL(\infty)$ group element. An important feature of this group element is its simplicity: this is a group element of the Virasoro subalgebra of $gl(\infty)$. If proved, this conjecture would allow to derive the Virasoro constraints for the Hurwitz tau-function, which remain unknown in spite of existence of several matrix model representations, as well as to give an integrable operator description of the…
We analyse the consequences of the Virasoro conjecture of Eguchi, Hori and Xiong for Gromov-Witten invariants, in the case of zero degree maps to the manifolds CP^1 and CP^2 (or more generally, smooth projective curves and smooth simply-connected projective surfaces). We obtain predictions involving intersections of psi and lambda classes on the compactification of M_{g,n}. In particular, we show that the Virasoro conjecture for CP^2 implies the numerical part of Faber's conjecture on the tautological Chow ring of M_g.
In their fundamental work, B. Dubrovin and Y. Zhang, generalizing the Virasoro equations for the genus 0 Gromov-Witten invariants, proved the Virasoro equations for a descendent potential in genus 0 of an arbitrary conformal Frobenius manifold. More recently, a remarkable system of partial differential equations, called the open WDVV equations, appeared in the work of A. Horev and J. P. Solomon. This system controls the genus 0 open Gromov-Witten invariants. In our paper, for an arbitrary solution of the open WDVV equations, satisfying a certain homogeneity condition, we construct a descendent…
Let $V$ be a smooth, projective, convex variety. We define tautological $ψ$ and $κ$ classes on the moduli space of stable maps $\M_{0,n}(V)$, give a (graphical) presentation for these classes in terms of boundary strata, derive differential equations for the generating functions of the Gromov-Witten invariants of $V$ twisted by these tautological classes, and prove that these intersection numbers are completely determined by the Gromov-Witten invariants of $V$. This results in families of Frobenius manifold structures on the cohomology ring of $V$ which includes the quantum cohomology as a spe…
An algorithm to determine all the Gromov-Witten invariants of any smooth projective curve was obtained by Okounkov and Pandharipande in 2006. They identified stationary invariants with certain Hurwitz numbers and then presented Virasoro type constraints that allow to determine all the other Gromov-Witten invariants in terms of the stationary ones. In the case of an elliptic curve, we show that these Virasoro type constraints can be explicitly solved leading to a very explicit formula for the full Gromov-Witten potential in terms of the stationary invariants.
We derive explicit universal equations for primary Gromov-Witten invariants by applying Getzler's genus one relation to quantum powers of Euler vector field. As an application, we provide some evidences for the genus-1 Virasoro conjecture.
Witten's top Chern class is a particular cohomology class on the moduli space of Riemann surfaces endowed with r-spin structures. It plays a key role in Witten's conjecture relating to the intersection theory on these moduli spaces. Our first goal is to compute the integral of Witten's class over the so-called double ramification cycles in genus 1. We obtain a simple closed formula for these integrals. This allows us, using the methods of [15], to find an algorithm for computing the intersection numbers of the Witten class with powers of the ψ-classes (or tautological classes) over any moduli …
In this paper, we show that the derivative of the genus-1 Virasoro conjecture for Gromov-Witten invariants along the direction of quantum volume element holds for all smooth projective varieties. This result provides new evidence for the Virasoro conjecture.
In this paper, we define genus-zero relative Gromov--Witten invariants with negative contact orders. Using this, we construct relative quantum cohomology rings and Givental formalism. A version of Virasoro constraints also follows from it.
The goal of this article is to motivate and describe how Gromov-Witten theory can and has provided tools to understand the moduli space of curves. For example, ideas and methods from Gromov-Witten theory have led to both conjectures and theorems showing that the tautological part of the cohomology ring has a remarkable and profound structure. As an illustration, we describe a new approach to Faber's intersection number conjecture via branched covers of the projective line (work with I.P. Goulden and D.M. Jackson, based on work with T. Graber). En route we review the work of a large number of m…
We first study the quantum product on the big phase space defined by gravitational Gromov-Witten invariants. We then use this product to give an interpretation for various topological recursion relations and also use it to study the Virasoro conjecture proposed by Eguchi-Hori-Xiong and Katz. We will give a recursive formulation to the Virasoro conjecture and study properties of relevent vector fields, which will be useful in proving and applying the Virasoro conjecture for all genera. In the genus-2 case, we will prove that the genus-2 Virasoro conjecture can be reduced to the $L_{1}$ constrai…
We state and prove a topological recursion relation that expresses any genus-g Gromov-Witten invariant of a projective manifold with at least a (3g-1)-st power of a cotangent line class in terms of invariants with fewer cotangent line classes. For projective spaces, we prove that these relations together with the Virasoro conditions are sufficient to calculate the full Gromov-Witten potential. This gives the first computationally feasible way to determine the higher genus Gromov-Witten invariants of projective spaces.
We prove generalized Virasoro constraints for the relative Gromov-Witten theories of all nonsingular target curves. Descendents of the even cohomology classes are studied first by localization, degeneration, and completed cycle methods. Descendents of the odd cohomology are then controlled by monodromy and geometric vanishing relations. As an outcome of our results, the relative theories of target curves are completely and explicitly determined.
The Virasoro operations in Witten's theory of two-dimensional topological gravity have a homotopy-theoretic interpretation as endomorphisms of an ordinary cohomology theory with coefficients in a localization of I. Schur's ring Δof Q-functions. The resulting theory has many of the features of a vertex operator algebra.
Given an algebraic surface $X$, the Hilbert scheme $X^{[n]}$ of $n$-points on $X$ admits a contraction morphism to the $n$-fold symmetric product $X^{(n)}$ with the extremal ray generated by a class $β_n$ of a rational curve. We determine the two point extremal GW-invariants of $X^{[n]}$ with respect to the class $dβ_n$ for a simply-connected projective surface $X$ and the quantum first Chern class operator of the tautological bundle on $X^{[n]}$. The methods used are vertex algebraic description of $H^*(X^{[n]})$, the localization technique applied to $X=\mathbb P^2$, and a generalization of …
We study the Toda conjecture of Eguchi and Yang for the Gromov-Witten invariants of CP^1,using the bihamiltonian method of the formal calculus of variations. We also study its relationship to the Virasoro conjecture for CP^1, recently proved by Givental (math.AG/0108100).
In this paper, we give a simple formula for the generating function of genus-2 Gromov-Witten invariants for manifolds with semisimple quantum cohomology, and use this formula to prove the genus-2 Virasoro conjecture for such manifolds.
In this paper, we give some new genus-3 universal equations for Gromov-Witten invariants of compact symplectic manifolds. These equations were obtained by studying new relations in the tautological ring of the moduli space of 2-pointed genus-3 stable curves. A byproduct of our search for genus-3 equations is a new genus-2 universal equation for Gromov-Witten invariants.
We construct a countable number of differential operators $\hat{L}_n$ that annihilate a generating function for intersection numbers of $κ$ classes on $\Moduli_g$ (the $κ$-potential). This produces recursions among intersection numbers of $κ$ classes which determine all such numbers from a single initial condition. The starting point of the work is a combinatorial formula relating intersecion numbers of $ψ$ and $κ$ classes. Such a formula produces an exponential differential operator acting on the Gromov-Witten potential to produce the $κ$-potential; after restricting to a hyperplane, we have …
We prove that the ancestor Gromov-Witten correlation functions of one-dimensional compact Calabi-Yau orbifolds are quasi-modular forms. This includes the pillowcase orbifold which can not yet be handled by using Milanov-Ruan's B-model technique. We first show that genus zero modularity is obtained from the phenomenon that the system of WDVV equations is essentially equivalent to the set of Ramanujan identities satisfied by the generators of the ring of quasi-modular forms for a certain modular group associated to the orbifold curve. Higher genus modularity then follows by using tautological re…
In our previous article we have proposed that the Virasoro algebra controls the quantum cohomology of Fano varieties at all genera. In this paper we construct a free field description of Virasoro operators and quantum cohomology. We shall show that to each even (odd) homology class of a Kähler manifold we have a free bosonic (fermionic) field and Virasoro operators are given by a simple bilinear form of these fields. We shall show that the Virasoro condition correctly reproduces the Gromov-Witten invariants also in the case of manifolds with non-vanishing non-analytic classes ($h^{p,q}\not=0,p…
We show that non-stationary Gromov-Witten invariants of $\mathbb{P}^1$ can be extracted from open periods of the Eynard-Orantin topological recursion correlators $ω_{g,n}$ whose Laurent series expansion at $\infty$ compute the stationary invariants. To do so, we overcome the technical difficulties to global loop equations for the spectral $x(z) = z + 1/z$ and $y(z) = \ln z$ from the local loop equations satisfied by the $ω_{g,n}$, and check these global loop equations are equivalent to the Virasoro constraints that are known to govern the full Gromov-Witten theory of $\mathbb{P}^1$.
This survey paper begins with the description of the duality between arc systems and ribbon graphs embedded in a punctured surface. Then we explain how to cellularize the moduli space of curves in two different ways: using Jenkins-Strebel differentials and using hyperbolic geometry. We also briefly discuss how these two methods are related. Next, we recall the definition of Witten cycles and we illustrate their connection with tautological classes and Weil-Petersson geometry. Finally, we exhibit a simple direct argument to prove that Witten classes are stable.
We show that any degree at least $g$ polynomial in descendant or tautological classes vanishes on $M_{g,n}$ when $g\ge 2$. This generalizes a result of Looijenga and proves a version of Getzler's conjecture. The method we use is the study of the relative Gromov-Witten invariants of $P^1$ relative 2 points combined with the degeneration formulas of [IP1]. At the end of the paper, we also included a quick proof of a very recent conjecture made by Vakil.
We prove a localization formula for virtual fundamental classes in the context of torus equivariant perfect obstruction theories. As an application, the higher genus Gromov-Witten invariants of projective space are expressed as graph sums of tautological integrals over moduli spaces of stable pointed curves (generalizing Kontsevich's genus 0 formulas). Also, excess integrals over spaces of higher genus multiple covers are computed.
Integrals of the Chern classes of the Hodge bundle in Gromov-Witten theory are studied. We find a universal system of differential equations which determines the generating function of these integrals from the standard descendent potential (for any target X). We use virtual localization and classical degeneracy calculations to find trigonometric closed form solutions for special Hodge integrals over the moduli space of pointed curves. These formulas are applied to two computations in Gromov-Witten theory for Calabi-Yau 3-folds. The genus g, degree d multiple cover contribution of a rational cu…
Quantum Lefschetz theorem by Coates and Givental gives a relationship between the genus 0 Gromov-Witten theory of X and the twisted theory by a line bundle L on X. We prove the convergence of the twisted theory under the assumption that the genus 0 theory for original X converges. As a byproduct, we prove the semi-simplicity and the Virasoro conjecture for the Gromov-Witten theories of (not necessarily Fano) projective toric manifolds.
This paper continues the same-named article, Part I (math.QA/9812083). We give a global operator approach to the WZWN theory for compact Riemann surfaces of an arbitrary genus g with marked points. Globality means here that we use Krichever-Novikov algebras of gauge and conformal symmetries (i.e. algebras of global symmetries) instead of loop and Virasoro algebras (which are local in this context). The elements of this global approach are described in Part I. In the present paper we give the construction of conformal blocks and the projective flat connection on the bundle constituted by them.
We give two proofs of a conjecture of Hori and Vafa which expresses the J-function (i.e, the generating function for 1-point descendant Gromov-Witten invariants) of a Grassmannian in terms of the J-function of a product of projective spaces. Similar relations are obtained for two-point descendants, and three-point (primary) Gromov-Witten invariants. As an application we prove Givental's "R-Conjecture" - hence the Virasoro conjecture - for Grassmannians.
Let X be a projective manifold, and let H be the associated small phase space; this is a Frobenius manifold with canonical choice of fundamental solution for the Dubrovin connection. The large phase space of X may be identified with the jet-space of curves in H. In this paper, we formulate the differential equations satisfied by the higher-genus potentials F_g of X, such as topological recursion relations and the Virasoro constraints, in an intrinsic fashion on the jet space of H, that is, in such a way that the equations do not depend on the choice of fundamental solution. This effort is rewa…
Starting from the ELSV formula, we derive a number of new equations on the generating functions for Hodge integrals over the moduli space of complex curves. This gives a new simple and uniform treatment of certain known results on Hodge integrals like Witten's conjecture, Virasoro constrains, Faber's lambda_g conjecture etc. Among other results we show that a properly arranged generating function for Hodge integrals satisfies the equations of the KP hierarchy.
We prove a conjecture of Maulik, Pandharipande, and Thomas expressing the Gromov--Witten invariants of K3 surfaces for divisibility two curve classes in all genus in terms of weakly holomorphic quasimodular forms of level two. Then, we establish the holomorphic anomaly equation in divisibility two in all genus. Our approach involves a refined boundary induction, relying on the top tautological group of the moduli space of smooth curves, together with a degeneration formula for reduced virtual fundamental class with imprimitive curve classes. We use the double ramification relations with target…
The generating series of the intersection numbers of the stable cohomology classes on moduli spaces of curves satisfies the string equation and a KdV hierarchy. Kontsevich's original proof of this result uses a matrix model and the matrix Airy equation. Witten then recasted Kontsevich's results in terms of Virasoro algebras, by means of an ingenious mixture of Feynman diagrams techniques and integrations by parts with some "rather formidable choice" of the integrands. In this note we show how Witten's formidable choices can be bartered for standard Feynman diagram manipulations, as soon as one…
