Orbifold Cohomology of the Symmetric Product

Abstract

Chen and Ruan's orbifold cohomology of the symmetric product of a complex manifold is calculated. An isomorphism of rings (up to a change of signs) $H_{orb}^*(X^n/S_n;\complex) \cong H^*(X^{[n]};\complex)$ between the orbifold cohomology of the symmetric product of a smooth projective surface with trivial canonical class $X$ and the cohomology of its Hilbert scheme $X^{[n]}$ is obtained, yielding a positive answer to a conjecture of Ruan.