Stable maps and stable quotients

Abstract: We analyze the relationship between two compactifications of the moduli space of maps from curves to a Grassmannian: the Kontsevich moduli space of stable maps and the Marian--Oprea--Pandharipande moduli space of stable quotients. We construct a moduli space which dominates both the moduli space of stable maps to a Grassmannian and the moduli space of stable quotients, and equip our moduli space with a virtual fundamental class. We relate the virtual fundamental classes of all three moduli spaces using the virtual push-forward formula. This gives a new proof of a theorem of Marian-Oprea-Pandharipande: that enumerative invariants defined as intersection numbers in the stable quotient moduli space coincide with Gromov--Witten invariants.