The quantum Euler class and the quantum cohomology of the Grassmannians (Q1567350)

In this paper, the author defines the characteristic element of a Frobenius algebra. He proves that the characteristic element is a unit if and only if the algebra is semisimple. The interest in this result comes from the fact that the quantum cohomology of a symplectic manifold is a Frobenius algebra. For classical cohomology, the characteristic element is the Euler characteristic. In the quantum case, the characteristic element should be interpreted as a deformed Euler class. The author shows that for the canonical bundle over a complex Grassmannian, the (deformed) Euler class is the Hessian of the Landau-Ginzberg potential up to a sign. The Landau-Ginzberg potential is just the sum \(\sum^k_{i=1} \frac{1}{n+1} \lambda^{n+1}_i\), where the \(\lambda_i\) are the Chern roots. The Landau-Ginzberg potential may be expressed in terms of Chern classes since it is a symmetric function of the roots. The paper concludes with a computation for degree \(d\) hypersurfaces.