The topology of the space of rational curves on a toric variety

Abstract

Let $X$ be a compact toric variety. Let $Hol$ denote the space of based holomorphic maps from $CP^1$ to $X$ which lie in a fixed homotopy class. Let $Map$ denote the corresponding space of continuous maps. We show that $Hol$ has the same homotopy groups as $Map$ up to some (computable) dimension. The proof uses a description of $Hol$ as a space of configurations of labelled points, where the labels lie in a partial monoid determined by the fan of $X$.