Let ${\mathcal {R}} \subset \mathbb {P}^1_{\mathbb {C}}$ be a finite subset of markings. Let G be an almost simple simply-connected algebraic group over $\mathbb {C}$. Let $K_G$ denote the compact real form of G. Suppose for each lasso l around the marked point, a conjugacy class $C_l$ in $K_G$ is prescribed. The aim of this paper is to give verifiable criteria for the existence of an irreducible homomorphism of $\pi _{1}(\mathbb P^1_{\mathbb {C}} \,{\backslash}\, {\mathcal {R}})$ into $K_G$ such that the image of l lies in $C_l$.

We compute the $g=1$, $n=1$ B-model Gromov–Witten invariant of an elliptic curve $E$ directly from the derived category $\mathsf{D}_{\mathsf{coh}}^{b}(E)$. More precisely, we carry out the computation of the categorical Gromov–Witten invariant defined by Costello using as target a cyclic $\mathscr{A}_{\infty }$ model of $\mathsf{D}_{\mathsf{coh}}^{b}(E)$ described by Polishchuk. This is the first non-trivial computation of a positive-genus categorical Gromov–Witten invariant, and the result agrees with the prediction of mirror symmetry: it matches the classical (non-categorical) Gromov–Witten invariants of a symplectic 2-torus computed by Dijkgraaf.

We discuss the Gromov–Witten/Donaldson–Thomas correspondence for 3-folds in both the absolute and relative cases. Descendents in Gromov–Witten theory are conjectured to be equivalent to Chern characters of the universal sheaf in Donaldson–Thomas theory. Relative constraints in Gromov–Witten theory are conjectured to correspond in Donaldson–Thomas theory to cohomology classes of the Hilbert scheme of points of the relative divisor. Independent of the conjectural framework, we prove degree 0 formulas for the absolute and relative Donaldson–Thomas theories of toric varieties.

We conjecture an equivalence between the Gromov–Witten theory of 3-folds and the holomorphic Chern–Simons theory of Donaldson and Thomas. For Calabi–Yau 3-folds, the equivalence is defined by the change of variables $e^{iu}=-q$, where $u$ is the genus parameter of Gromov–Witten theory and $q$ is the Euler characteristic parameter of Donaldson–Thomas theory. The conjecture is proven for local Calabi–Yau toric surfaces.