Absolute and relative Gromov-Witten invariants of very ample hypersurfaces

Abstract

For any smooth complex projective variety X and smooth very ample hypersurface Y in X, we develop the technique of genus zero relative Gromov-Witten invariants of Y in X in algebro-geometric terms. We prove an equality of cycles in the Chow groups of the moduli spaces of relative stable maps that relates these relative invariants to the Gromov-Witten invariants of X and Y. Given the Gromov-Witten invariants of X, we show that these relations are sufficient to compute all relative invariants, as well as all genus zero Gromov-Witten invariants of Y whose homology and cohomology classes are induced by X.