A mathematical theory of quantum cohomology (Q5970598)

About ten years ago, E. Witten has proposed a variant of the usual supersymmetric nonlinear sigma model, governing maps from a Riemann surface to an arbitrary almost complex manifold. His topological sigma models describe, in particular, \((1+1)\)-dimensional gravity theory, and have become increasingly important in string theory and its related complex geometry. Especially the investigation of the topological phase space of such a sigma model has produced deep geometrical conjectures and predictions, based on physical intuition and axiomatic assumptions, which have been lacking mathematical affirmation (and rigor) for quite a few years. The concept of quantum cohomology, first and independently proposed by \textit{E. Witten} [cf. Surv. Differ. Geom., Suppl. J. Diff. Geom. 1, 243--310 (1991; Zbl 0757.53049) and \textit{C. Vafa} (cf. `Topological mirrors and quantum rings.' (1992; Zbl 0827.58073)], is one of the most recent and celebrated examples in this realm. The present paper, as the title says, aims at giving one possible rigorous mathematical framework for the physicists' theory of quantum cohomology rings. The authors, following E. Witten's ideas and predictions, make use of symplectic geometry and pseudo-holomorphic curves to establish one of the most important sigma model invariants, the so-called ``\(k\)-point correlation function'' for rational curves in the underlying phase space, and to verify one of the key axioms in quantum cohomology, namely the associativity of the quantum multiplication in the cohomology ring of the underlying (phase) manifold. Section 1 of the paper gives a very beautiful, thorough and enlightening introduction to the physical background, the problems to be discussed, the interrelations with (almost) complex geometry and algebraic geometry, and to the strategy of the paper. Section 2 is devoted to semipositive symplectic manifolds and their (so-called) mixed invariants with respect to \(k\)-pointed Riemann surfaces of arbitrary genus \(g\). These invariants are then, indeed, nothing else but Witten's topological sigma model invariants, at least in a special case. The following sections 3-6 provide some deep requisites (compactification and transversality theorems for moduli spaces of ``perturbative'' holomorphic curves in symplectic manifolds) for the ultimate definition of the mixed invariants, and for the proof of their composition law (associativity under multiplication in the quantum cohomology ring). The central result of the paper, namely the establishing of just this composition law, is then derived in section 7, whereas section 8 shows that the cohomology ring of a semi-positive symplectic manifold therefore can be equipped with a quantum ring structure in the sense of Witten and Vafa. Section 9 discusses relations with (and applications to) the mirror symmetry conjecture in complex algebraic geometry, and the concluding section 10 deepens the algebro-geometric significance of the composition law by applying it to some well-known problems in the enumerative geometry of special classes of algebraic varieties. In the course of these applications, the authors recover the Gromov-Witten invariants and show how these can be computed in terms of their invariants. Altogether, this work is a very important contribution towards the understanding and the mathematical foundation of quantum cohomology theory. In spite of the complexity and depth of the methods and results, the presentation of the material is utmost lucid, clear and thorough. In the meantime, other (and different) approaches to a rigorous foundation of quantum cohomology have been proposed, and that mainly by algebraic geometers. Amongst them, the recent papers ``Gromov-Witten classes, quantum cohomology, and enumerative geometry'' by \textit{M. Kontsevich} and \textit{Yu. Manin} [cf. Commun. Math. Phys. 164, No. 3, 525--562 (1994; Zbl 0853.14020)], ``Frobenius manifolds, quantum cohomology, and moduli spaces'' (Chapters I--III) by \textit{Yu. Manin} (MPI Bonn, 1996), and ``Notes on stable maps and quantum cohomology'' by \textit{W. Fulton} and \textit{R. Pandharipande} (Preprint, Univ. Chicago, 1996) are certainly of particular interest.