Virtual classes for hypersurfaces via two-periodic complexes

Abstract: These expository notes are based on a series of lectures given at the May 2018 Snowbird workshop, Crossing the Walls in Enumerative Geometry. We give an introductory treatment of the notion of a virtual fundamental class in algebraic geometry, and describe a new construction of the virtual fundamental class for Gromov-Witten theory of a hypersurface. The results presented here are based on joint work with I. Ciocan-Fontanine, D. Favero, J. Gu\'er\'e, and B. Kim.