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Logarithmic Gromov-Witten invariants

The goal of this paper is to give a general theory of logarithmic Gromov-Witten invariants. This gives a vast generalization of the theory of relative Gromov-Witten invariants introduced by Li-Ruan, Ionel-Parker, and Jun Li, and completes a program first proposed by the second named author in 2002. One considers target spaces X carrying a log structure. Domains of stable log curves are log smooth curves. Algebraicity of the stack of such stable log maps is proven, subject only to the hypothesis that the log structure on X is fine, saturated, and Zariski. A notion of basic stable log map is introduced; all stable log maps are pull-backs of basic stable log maps via base-change. With certain additional hypotheses, the stack of basic stable log maps is proven to be proper. Under these hypotheses and the additional hypothesis that X is log smooth, one obtains a theory of log Gromov-Witten invariants.