Tangent curves to degenerating hypersurfaces

Abstract

Abstract We study the behaviour of rational curves tangent to a hypersurface under degenerations of the hypersurface. Working within the framework of logarithmic Gromov–Witten theory, we extend the degeneration formula to the logarithmically singular setting, producing a virtual class on the space of maps to the degenerate fibre. We then employ logarithmic deformation theory to express this class as an obstruction bundle integral over the moduli space of ordinary stable maps. This produces new refinements of the logarithmic Gromov–Witten invariants, encoding the degeneration behaviour of tangent curves. In the example of a smooth plane cubic degenerating to the toric boundary we employ localisation and tropical techniques to compute these refinements. Finally, we leverage these calculations to describe how embedded curves tangent to a smooth cubic degenerate as the cubic does; the results obtained are of a classical nature, but the proofs make essential use of logarithmic Gromov–Witten theory.