A new tautological equation of $\bar{M}_{3,1}$ in codimension 3 is derived and proved, using the invariance condition explained in earlier works.

For ordinary flops, the correspondence defined by the graph closure is shown to give equivalence of Chow motives and to preserve the Poincaré pairing. In the case of simple ordinary flops, this correspondence preserves the big quantum cohomology ring after an analytic continuation over the extended Kähler moduli space. For Mukai flops, it is shown that the birational map for the local models is deformation equivalent to isomorphisms. This implies that the birational map induces isomorphisms on the full quantum rings and all the quantum corrections attached to the extremal ray vanish.

We discuss selected topics on the topology of moduli spaces of curves and maps, emphasizing their relation with Gromov--Witten theory and integrable systems.

The main goal of this paper is to prove the following two conjectures for genus up to two: 1. Witten's conjecture on the relations between higher spin curves and Gelfand--Dickey hierarchy. 2. Virasoro conjecture for target manifolds with conformal semisimple Frobenius manifolds. The main technique used in the proof is the invariance of tautological equations under loop group action.

The celebrated Mirror Theorem states that the genus zero part of the A model (quantum cohomology, rational curves counting) of the Fermat quintic threefold is equivalent to the B model (complex deformation, variation of Hodge structure) of its mirror dual orbifold. In this article, we establish a mirror-dual statement. Namely, the B model of the Fermat quintic threefold is shown to be equivalent to the A model of its mirror, and hence establishes the mirror symmetry as a true duality.