Flops, motives, and invariance of quantum rings (Q990176)

Let \(X\) be a smooth complex projective variety and \(f: X \relbar \to X'\) an ordinary \({\mathbb P}^r\) flop. One of the main results established in this paper is that the big quantum cohomology ring is invariant under simple ordinary flops after analytic continuation over the extended Kähler moduli space (Theorem 0.2). The authors also prove that if \(f\) is a Mukai flop, then \(X\) and \(X'\) are diffeomorphic, hence they have isomorphic Hodge structures and Gromov-Witten theory (Theorem 0.3). Y. Ruan and C.-L. Wang independently conjectured that \(K\)-equivalent smooth varieties have canonically isomorphic quantum cohomology rings over the extended Kähler moduli spaces (Conjecture 0.4). This conjecture was first established for threefolds by A. Li and Y. Ruan, and the paper under review establishes the analogous result in higher dimension, thus providing further evidence for the Ruan--Wang conjecture.