We develop a theory of quasimaps to a moduli space of sheaves M on a surface S. Under some assumptions, we prove that moduli spaces of quasimaps are proper and carry a perfect obstruction theory. Moreover, they are naturally isomorphic to moduli spaces of sheaves on threefolds $S\times C$, where C is a nodal curve. Using Zhou’s theory of entangled tails, we establish a wall-crossing formula which therefore relates the Gromov–Witten theory of M and the Donaldson–Thomas theory of $S\times C$ with relative insertions. We evaluate the wall-crossing formula for Hilbert schemes of points $S^{[n]}$, if S is a del Pezzo surface.

We compute odd-degree genus 1 quasimap and Gromov–Witten invariants of moduli spaces of Higgs ${\rm{S}}{{\rm{L}}_2}$-bundles on a curve of genus $g \geqslant 2$. We also compute certain invariants for all prime ranks. This proves some parts of the author’s conjectures on quasimap invariants of moduli spaces of Higgs bundles. More generally, our methods provide a computation scheme for genus 1 quasimap and Gromov–Witten invariants in the case when degrees of maps are coprime to the rank. This requires an analysis of the localisation formula for certain Quot schemes parametrising higher-rank quotients on an elliptic curve. Invariants for degrees that are not coprime to the rank exhibit a very different structure for a reason that we explain.

In this article, we study quasimaps to moduli spaces of sheaves on a $K3$ surface S. We construct a surjective cosection of the obstruction theory of moduli spaces of $\epsilon $-stable quasimaps. We then establish reduced wall-crossing formulas which relate the reduced Gromov–Witten theory of moduli spaces of sheaves on S and the reduced Donaldson–Thomas theory of $S\times C$, where C is a nodal curve. As applications, we prove the Hilbert-schemes part of the Igusa cusp form conjecture; higher-rank/rank-one Donaldson–Thomas correspondence with relative insertions on $S\times C$, if $g(C)\leq 1$; Donaldson–Thomas/Pandharipande–Thomas correspondence with relative insertions on $S\times \mathbb {P}^1$.