Holomorphic anomaly equation for $({\mathbb P}^2,E)$ and the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit of local ${\mathbb P}^2$

Abstract 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.