Pseudoholomorphic Curves Relative to a Normal Crossings Symplectic Divisor: Compactification

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new geometric framework for log J-holomorphic curves relative to normal crossings symplectic divisors, establishing compactness, a detailed structure of moduli spaces, and paving the way for defining relative Gromov-Witten invariants.

Contribution

It develops a compactification of the moduli space of log J-holomorphic curves relative to normal crossings divisors without extra target modifications, and describes their deformation and gluing theory.

Findings

Moduli spaces are compact and metrizable under certain conditions.

A toric model for the normal cone of each stratum is provided.

Framework for virtual fundamental class construction and relative GW invariants is outlined.

Abstract

Inspired by the log Gromov-Witten (or GW) theory of Gross-Siebert/Abramovich-Chen, we introduce a geometric notion of log J-holomorphic curve relative to a simple normal crossings symplectic divisor defined in [FMZ1]. Every such moduli space is characterized by a second homology class, genus, and contact data. For certain almost complex structures, we show that the moduli space of stable log J-holomorphic curves of any fixed type is compact and metrizable with respect to an enhancement of the Gromov topology. In the case of smooth symplectic divisors, our compactification is often smaller than the relative compactification and there is a projection map from the latter onto the former. The latter is constructed via expanded degenerations of the target. Our construction does not need any modification of (or any extra structure on) the target. Unlike the classical moduli spaces of stable maps, these log moduli spaces are often virtually singular. We describe an explicit toric model for the normal cone (i.e. the space of gluing parameters) to each stratum in terms of the defining combinatorial data of that stratum. In [FT2], we introduce a natural set up for studying the deformation theory of log (and relative) curves and obtain a logarithmic analog of the space of Ruan-Tian perturbations for these moduli spaces. In a forthcoming paper, we will prove a gluing theorem for smoothing log curves in the normal direction to each stratum. With some modifications to the theory of Kuranishi spaces, the latter will allow us to construct a virtual fundamental class for every such log moduli space and define relative GW invariants without any restriction.