In this paper, we define genus‐zero relative Gromov–Witten invariants with negative contact orders. Using this, we construct relative quantum cohomology rings and Givental formalism. A version of Virasoro constraints also follows from it.

We extend the definition of relative Gromov–Witten invariants with negative contact orders to all genera. Then we show that relative Gromov–Witten theory forms a partial CohFT. Some cycle relations on the moduli space of stable maps are also proved.

We derive a recursive formula for certain relative Gromov–Witten invariants with a maximal tangency condition via the Witten–Dijkgraaf–Verlinde–Verlinde equation. For certain relative pairs, we get explicit formulae of invariants using the recursive formula.

We prove a higher genus version of the genus $0$ local-relative correspondence of van Garrel-Graber-Ruddat: for $(X,D)$ a pair with X a smooth projective variety and D a nef smooth divisor, maximal contact Gromov-Witten theory of $(X,D)$ with $\lambda _g$ -insertion is related to Gromov-Witten theory of the total space of ${\mathcal O}_X(-D)$ and local Gromov-Witten theory of D. Specializing to $(X,D)=(S,E)$ for S a del Pezzo surface or a rational elliptic surface and E a smooth anticanonical divisor, we show that maximal contact Gromov-Witten theory of $(S,E)$ is determined by the Gromov-Witten theory of the Calabi-Yau 3-fold ${\mathcal O}_S(-E)$ and the stationary Gromov-Witten theory of the elliptic curve E. Specializing further to $S={\mathbb P}^2$ , we prove that higher genus generating series of maximal contact Gromov-Witten invariants of $({\mathbb P}^2,E)$ are quasimodular and satisfy a holomorphic anomaly equation. The proof combines the quasimodularity results and the holomorphic anomaly equations previously known for local ${\mathbb P}^2$ and the elliptic curve. Furthermore, using the connection between maximal contact Gromov-Witten invariants of $({\mathbb P}^2,E)$ and Betti numbers of moduli spaces of semistable one-dimensional sheaves on ${\mathbb P}^2$ , we obtain a proof of the quasimodularity and holomorphic anomaly equation predicted in the physics literature for the refined topological string free energy of local ${\mathbb P}^2$ in the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit.

The purpose of the article is to give a proof of a conjecture of Maulik and Pandharipande for genus 2 and 3. As a result, it gives a way to determine Gromov-Witten invariants of the quintic threefold for genus 2 and 3.