The moduli space of stable quotients (Q640345)

The article under review introduces a new moduli space of curves on Grassmannians: the moduli space of stable quotients. This space parametrizes flat quotients of the trivial bundle on nodal curves with marked points whose torsion is not supported on nodes or markings. It is shown that moduli spaces of stable quotients are proper Deligne--Mumford stacks which moreover have perfect obstruction theories. This allows to define virtual intersection numbers on moduli spaces of stable quotients. A localization argument shows that the virtual intersection numbers on these spaces are equal to Gromov--Witten invariants of Grassmannians. Another way to describe stable quotients is to see them as rational applications from (families) of nodal curves to Grassmannians, or more precisely as sections of certain vector bundles. This idea leads to the more general construction of Ciocan-Fontanine, Kim and Maulik who constructed moduli spaces of quasi-maps to GIT quotients. Moduli of stable quasi-maps (or variants of them) are particularly useful because virtual intersection numbers are often easier to compute than Gromov-Witten invariants. This idea was employed in several contexts (see e.g. [\textit{R. Pandharipande}, Acta Math. 208, No. 2, 335--388 (2012; Zbl 1273.14057)]).