Enumeration of real conics and maximal configurations (Q388770)

The Gromov-Witten invariant of the complex projective space is the number of rational curves of a given degree, passing through a generic collection of subspaces of given dimensions. An important problem of real algebraic geometry is the real version of this question: is it possible that, for certain generic real subspaces, none of the corresponding rational curves are real, or, on the contrary, all of them are real? Regarding the first part of the question, a major breakthrough was the definition of the Welschinger invariant, which gave a negative answer for every degree in 2 and 3 dimensions (see [\textit{J.~Y.~Welschinger}, Invent. Math. 162, No. 1, 195--234 (2005; Zbl 1082.14052)]; [Duke Math. J. 127, No. 1, 89--121 (2005; Zbl 1084.14056)] and [\textit{I. V. Itenberg} et al., Russ. Math. Surv. 59, No. 6, 1093--1116 (2004); translation from Usp. Mat. Nauk 59, No. 6, 85--110 (2004; Zbl 1086.14047)]). Regarding the second part, the only general result was the positive answer for degree 1 in any dimension, see [\textit{F.~Sottile}, Duke Math. J. 87, No. 1, 59--85 (1997; Zbl 0986.14033)] and [\textit{R.~Vakil}, Ann. Math. (2) 164, No. 2, 489--512 (2006; Zbl 1115.14043)] (even this linear algebraic special case is very complicated). In the present paper, a positive answer is given for degree 2 in any dimension: any Gromov-Witten enumerative problem for conics admits a generic real collection of subspaces such that all conics passing through these subspaces are real. The proof is based on Mikhalkin's tropical correspondence theorem (see [\textit{G. Mikhalkin}, J. Am. Math. Soc. 18, 313--377 (2005; Zbl 1092.14068)] and [\textit{B. Siebert} and \textit{T. Nishinou}, Duke Math. J. 135, No. 1, 1--51 (2006; Zbl 1105.14073)]) and the technique of floor diagrams (which was invented to combinatorially simplify the tropical correspondence and was already used earlier in [\textit{E. Brugallé} and \textit{G. Mikhalkin}, C. R., Math., Acad. Sci. Paris 345, No. 6, 329--334 (2007; Zbl 1124.14047)] to prove some special cases of the result of this paper).