Gromov-Witten theory and Donaldson-Thomas theory, II

Abstract

We discuss the Gromov-Witten/Donaldson-Thomas correspondence for 3-folds in both the absolute and relative cases. Descendents in Gromov-Witten theory are conjectured to be equivalent to Chern characters of the universal sheaf in Donaldson-Thomas theory. Relative constraints in Gromov-Witten theory are conjectured to correspond in Donaldson-Thomas theory to cohomology classes of the Hilbert scheme of points of the relative divisor. Independent of the conjectural framework, we prove degree 0 formulas for the absolute and relative Donaldson-Thomas theories of toric varieties. © Foundation Compositio Mathematica 2006.