Rationality of descendent series for Hilbert and Quot schemes of surfaces (Q829627)

Let \(X\) be a complex smooth connected projective surface with effective curve class \(\beta \in H_2 (X, \mathbb Z)\). For any \(N > 0\), the Quot scheme \(\text{Quot}_X (\mathbb C^N, \beta, n)\) parametrizes quotients \({\mathcal O}^N \to Q\) with \(c_1 (Q) = \beta\) and \(\chi (Q)=n\), or equivalently short exact sequences \(0 \to S \to \mathbb C^N \otimes \mathcal{O}_X \to Q \to 0\). The virtual fundamental class \([\text{Quot}_X (\mathbb C^N, \beta, n)]^{\text{vir}}\) was used by Marian, Oprea and Pandiharipande [\textit{A. Marian} et al., Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Sup. 50, 239--267 (2017; Zbl 1453.14016)] to prove a conjecture of \textit{M. Lehn} [Invent. Math. 136, 157--207 (1999; Zbl 0919.14001)] for \(K3\) surfaces. The virtual Euler characteristic is defined by integrating the total Chern class of the virtual tangent complex of the canonical obstruction theory (see [\textit{B. Fantechi} and \textit{L. Göttsche}, Geom. Topol. 14, 83--115 (2010; Zbl 1194.14017)], namely \[ \text{e}^{\text{vir}} (\text{Quot}_X (\mathbb C^N, \beta, n)) = \int_{[\text{Quot}_X (\mathbb C^N, \beta, n)]^{\text{vir}}} c(T^{\text{vir}} \text{Quot}) \in \mathbb Z \] where \(T^{\text{vir}} \text{Quot} = \text{Ext}^\bullet_X (S, Q)\) is evaluated at the exact sequence above. The second two named authors conjectured that the corresponding generating series \[ Z_{X,N.\beta} = \sum_{n \in \mathbb Z} \text{e}^{\text{vir}} (\text{Quot}_X (\mathbb C^N, \beta, n)) q^n \] is the Laurent expansion of a rational function in \(q\). The authors prove the conjecture when \(N=1\), when \(\text{Quot}_X (\mathbb C^1, \beta, n)\) is a Hilbert scheme of curves on \(X\). The authors further consider descendent series. Letting \(\pi_1, \pi_2\) be the projections from \(\text{Quot}_X (\mathbb C^N, \beta, n) \times X\) onto its two factors, let \(\mathcal Q\) be the universal quotient on \(\text{Quot}_X (\mathbb C^N, \beta, n) \times X\). A given \(K\)-theory class \(\alpha \in K^0 (X)\) yields the \(K\)-theory class \(\alpha^{[n]} =\mathbf{R} \pi_{1 *} (\mathcal Q \otimes \pi_2^* \alpha) \in K^0 (\text{Quot}_X (\mathbb C^N, \beta, n))\) and one can generalize the series of virtual Euler characteristics by defining the descendent series \(Z_{X,N,\beta}(\alpha_1, \dots, \alpha_{\ell} \ k_1, \dots, k_{\ell})\) by \[ \sum_{n \in \mathbb Z} \int_{[\text{Quot}_X (\mathbb C^N, \beta, n)]^{\text{vir}}} \text{ch}_{k_1} (\alpha_1^{[n]}) \dots \text{ch}_{k_{\ell}} (\alpha_{\ell}^{[n]}) c(T^{\text{vir}} \text{Quot}) q^n. \] The authors conjecture that \(Z_{X,N,\beta}(\alpha_1, \dots, \alpha_{\ell} \ k_1, \dots, k_{\ell})\) is the Laurent expansion of a rational function in \(q\) in general and prove it in the special cases \(\beta=0\) and \(N=1\). \textit{E. Carlsson} has studied descendent integrals as above against the (non-virtual) fundamental class of the Hilbert scheme of points and proven the descendent series to be quasi-modular [Adv. Math. 229, 2888--2907 (2012; Zbl 1255.14005)].