Tevelev degrees in Gromov-Witten theory

Abstract: For a nonsingular projective variety $X$, the virtual Tevelev degree in Gromov-Witten theory is defined as the virtual degree of the morphism from $M_{g,n}(X,d)$ to the product $M_{g,n} \times X^n$. After proving a simple formula for the virtual Tevelev degree in the (small) quantum cohomology ring of $X$ using the quantum Euler class, we provide several exact calculations for flag varieties and complete intersections. In the cominuscule case (including Grassmannians, Lagrangian Grassmannians, and maximal orthogonal Grassmannians), the virtual Tevelev degrees are calculated in terms of the eigenvalues of an associated self-adjoint linear endomorphism of the quantum cohomology ring. For complete intersections of low degree (compared to dimension), we prove a product formula. The calculation for complete intersections involves the primitive cohomology. Virtual Tevelev degrees are better behaved than arbitrary Gromov-Witten invariants, and, by recent results of Lian and Pandharipande, are much more likely to be enumerative.