We present a definition of homotopy algebra for an operad, and explore its consequences.
The paper should be accessible to topologists, category theorists, and anyone acquainted with operads. After a review of operads and monoidal categories, the definition of homotopy algebra is given. Specifically, suppose that M is a monoidal category in which it makes sense to talk about algebras for some operad P. Then our definition says what a homotopy P-algebra in M is, provided only that some of the morphisms in M have been marked out as `homotopy equivalences'.
The bulk of the paper consists of examples of homotopy algebras. We show that any loop space is a homotopy monoid, and, in fact, that any n-fold loop space is an n-fold homotopy monoid in an appropriate sense. We try to compare weakened algebraic structures such as A_infinity-spaces, A_infinity-algebras and non-strict monoidal categories to our homotopy algebras, with varying degrees of success. We also prove results on `change of base', e.g. that the classifying space of a homotopy monoidal category is a homotopy topological monoid. Finally, we reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of our definition, and on how the definition really ought to be replaced by a more subtle infinity-categorical version.
We prove, under mild assumptions, that a Quillen equivalence between symmetric monoidal model categories gives rise to a Quillen equivalence between their model categories of (non-symmetric) operads, and also between model categories of algebras over operads. We also show left properness results on model categories of operads and algebras over operads. As an application, we prove homotopy invariance for (unital) associative operads.
We endow categories of non-symmetric operads with natural model structures. We work with no restriction on our operads and only assume the usual hypotheses for model categories with a symmetric monoidal structure. We also study categories of algebras over these operads in enriched non-symmetric monoidal model categories.
We correct a mistake in the construction of push-outs along free morphisms of algebras over a nonsymmetric operad in arXiv:1101.1634 [math.AT], and we fix the affected results in arXiv:1101.1634 [math.AT] and arXiv:1304.6641 [math.AT].
This paper proves Koszul duality for coloured operads and uses it to introduce strongly homotopy operads as a suitable homotopy invariant version of operads. It shows that rational chains on configuration spaces of points in the plane form a strongly homotopy operad quasi isomorphic to the chains on the little disks operad.
In this work we present an explicit operad morphism that is also a homotopy equivalence between the operad given by the real Fulton MacPherson compactification of configuration spaces and the little $n$-disks operad. In particular, the construction gives an operadic homotopy equivalence between the associahedra and the little intervals explicitly. It can also be extended to the case of Kontsevich compactification and Voronov swiss-cheese operad.
The goal of the present paper is to compare, in a precise way, two notions of operads up to homotopy which appear in the literature. Namely, we construct a functor from the category of strict unital homotopy colored operads to the category of infinity-operads. The former notion, that we make precise, is the operadic generalization of the notion of A-infinity-categories and the latter notion was defined by Moerdijk--Weiss in order to generalize the simplicial notion of infinity-category of Joyal--Lurie. This functor extends in two directions the simplicial nerve of Faonte--Lurie for A-infinity-…
We give sufficient conditions for the existence of a model structure on operads in an arbitrary symmetric monoidal model category. General invariance properties for homotopy algebras over operads are deduced.
We prove that the category of algebras over a cofibrant operad admits a closed model category structure. This leads to the notion of "virtual operad algebra" - the algebra over a cofibrant resolution of the given operad. In particular, virtual commutative algebras can serve to an algebraic description of homotopy p-tipes as in the recent preprint of Mandell (electronic Hopf topology archive, october '98, see http://www.hopf.math.purdue.edu. Our main result allows one to significally simplify the proof of Mandell's theorem.
From the `cofree' cooperad $T'(A[-1])$ on a collection $A$ together with a differential, we construct an $L_\infty$-algebra structure on the total space $\bigoplus_nA(n)$ that descends to coinvariants. We use this construction to define an $L_\infty$-algebra controlling deformations of the operad $P$ under $Q$ from a cofibrant resolution for an operad $Q$, and an operad map $Q\longrightarrow P$. Starting from a diffent cofibrant resolution one obtains a quasi isomorohic $L_\infty$-algebra. This approach unifies Markl's cotangent cohomology of operads and the approaches to deformation of $Q$-al…
The purpose of this foundational paper is to introduce various notions and constructions in order to develop the homotopy theory for differential graded operads over any ring. The main new idea is to consider the action of the symmetric groups as part of the defining structure of an operad and not as the underlying category. We introduce a new dual category of higher cooperads, a new higher bar-cobar adjunction with the category of operads, and a new higher notion of homotopy operads, for which we establish the relevant homotopy properties. For instance, the higher bar-cobar construction provi…
Informally, a homotopy monoid is a monoid-like structure in which properties such as associativity only hold `up to homotopy' in some consistent way. This short paper comprises a rigorous definition of homotopy monoid and a brief analysis of some examples. It is a much-abbreviated version of the paper `Homotopy Algebras for Operads' (math.QA/0002180), and does not assume any knowledge of operads.
The transfer of the generating operations of an algebra to a homotopy equivalent chain complex produces higher operations. The first goal of this paper is to describe precisely the higher structure obtained when the unary operations commute with the contracting homotopy. To solve this problem, we develop the Koszul duality theory of operads in the category of modules over a cocommutative Hopf algebra. This gives rise to a simpler category of homotopy algebras and infinity-morphisms, which allows us to get a new description of the homotopy category of algebras over such operads. The main exampl…
We define the $m$th Veronese power of a weight graded operad $\mathcal{P}$ to be its suboperad $\mathcal{P}^{[m]}$ generated by operations of weight $m$. It turns out that, unlike Veronese powers of associative algebras, homological properties of operads are, in general, not improved by this construction. However, under some technical conditions, Veronese powers of quadratic Koszul operads are meaningful in the context of the Koszul duality theory. Indeed, we show that in many important cases the operads $\mathcal{P}^{[m]}$ are related by Koszul duality to operads describing strongly homotopy …
We express the rational homotopy type of the mapping spaces $\mathrm{Map}^h(\mathsf D_m,\mathsf D_n^{\mathbb Q})$ of the little discs operads in terms of graph complexes. Using known facts about the graph homology this allows us to compute the rational homotopy groups in low degrees, and construct infinite series of non-trivial homotopy classes in higher degrees. Furthermore we show that for $n-m>2$, the spaces $\mathrm{Map}^h(\mathsf D_m,\mathsf D_n^{\mathbb Q})$ and $\mathrm{Map}^h(\mathsf D_m,\mathsf D_n)$ are simply connected and rationally equivalent. As application we determine the ratio…
This survey provides an elementary introduction to operads and to their applications in homotopical algebra. The aim is to explain how the notion of an operad was prompted by the necessity to have an algebraic object which encodes higher homotopies. We try to show how universal this theory is by giving many applications in Algebra, Geometry, Topology, and Mathematical Physics. (This text is accessible to any student knowing what tensor products, chain complexes, and categories are.)
Hurwitz spaces are homotopy quotients of the braid group action on the moduli space of principal bundles over a punctured plane. By considering a certain model for this homotopy quotient we build an aspherical topological operad that we call the little bundles operad. As our main result, we describe this operad as a groupoid-valued operad in terms of generators and relations and prove that the categorical little bundles algebras are precisely Turaev's crossed categories. Moreover, we prove that the evaluation on the circle of a homotopical two-dimensional equivariant topolological field theory…
This paper provides some background to the theory of operads, used in the first author's papers on 2d topological field theory (hep-th/921204, CMP 159 (1994), 265-285; hep-th/9305013). It is intended for specialists.
The mapping spaces of the $r$-truncated versions of the $E_n$ operads appear as the $r$-th stage of the Taylor tower for long embedding spaces. It has been shown that their rational homotopy groups can be expressed through graph homology in the limit $r\to \infty$. For finite $r$ only a part of the graph homology appears in the homotopy groups of the Taylor tower at this stage, possibly along with some additional unstable homotopy groups. In this paper we study the convergence properties in some more detail. In particular, we provide bounds for the stage $r$ at which the various graph homology…
In this paper, we prove that the group of homotopy automorphisms of the profinite completion of the operad of little $2$-disks is isomorphic to the profinite Grothendieck-Teichmüller group. In particular, the absolute Galois group of $\mathbb{Q}$ acts faithfully on the profinite completion of $E_2$ in the homotopy category of profinite weak operads.
We study two colored operads of configurations of little $n$-disks in a unit $n$-disk, with the centers of the small disks of one color restricted to an $m$-plane, $m<n$. We compute the rational homotopy type of these \emph{extended Swiss Cheese operads} and show how they are connected to the rational homotopy types of the inclusion maps from the little $m$-disks to the little $n$-disks operad.
We review several well-known operads of compactified configuration spaces and construct several new such operads, C, in the category of smooth manifolds with corners whose complexes of fundamental chains give us (i) the 2-coloured operad of A-infinity algebras and their homotopy morphisms, (ii) the 2-coloured operad of L-infinity algebras and their homotopy morphisms, and (iii) the 4-coloured operad of open-closed homotopy algebras and their homotopy morphisms. Two gadgets - a (coloured) operad of Feynman graphs and a de Rham field theory on C - are introduced and used to construct quantized r…
We will introduce the notion of higher derived bracket construction in the category of operads and prove that the higher derived bracket construction of Lie operad is equivalent to the cobar construction of Leibniz operad. The theorem is proved by computing Schroder number.
An affine action of an associative algebra $A$ on a vector space $V$ is an algebra morphism $A \to V \rtimes {\rm End}(V)$, where $V$ is a vector space and $V \rtimes {\rm End}(V)$ is the algebra of affine transformations of $V$. The one dimensional version of the Swiss-Cheese operad, denoted ${\mathrm{\bf{sc}}}_1$, is the operad that governs affine actions of associative algebras. This operad is Koszul and admits a minimal model denoted by $({\mathrm{\bf{sc}}}_1)_\infty$. Algebras over this minimal model are called Homotopy Affine Actions, they consist of an $A_\infty$-morphism $A \to V \rtim…
This thesis is divided into two parts. The first one is composed of recollections on operad theory, model categories, simplicial homotopy theory, rational homotopy theory, Maurer-Cartan spaces, and deformation theory. The second part deals with the theory of convolution algebras and some of their applications, as explained below. Suppose we are given a type of algebras, a type of coalgebras, and a relationship between those types of algebraic structures (encoded by an operad, a cooperad, and a twisting morphism respectively). Then, it is possible to endow the space of linear maps from a coalge…
We show that the canonical map from the associative operad to the unital associative operad is a homotopy epimorphism for a wide class of symmetric monoidal model categories. As a consequence, the space of unital associative algebra structures on a given object is up to homotopy a subset of connected components of the space of non-unital associative algebra structures.
We define closed model category structures on different categories connected to the world of operad algebras over the category C(k) of (unbounded) complexes of k-modules: on the category of operads, on the category of algebras over a fixed operad, on the category of modules over a fixed operad algebra. In Sections 2 - 6 we define the necessary structures and provide some standard comparison results. In Section 7 we define cotangent complex. In Section 8 we define a canonical structure of homotopy Lie algebra on the tangent complex.
We construct an explicit minimal model for an algebra over the cobar-construction of a differential graded operad. The structure maps of this minimal model are expressed in terms of sums over decorated trees. We introduce the appropriate notion of a homotopy equivalence of operadic algebras and show that our minimal model is homotopy equivalent to the original algebra. All this generalizes and gives a conceptual explanation of well-known results for A-infinity algebras. Further, we show that these results carry over to the case of algebras over modular operads; the sums over trees get replaced…
We give an explicit formula for a quasi-isomorphism between the operads Hycomm (the homology of the moduli space of stable genus 0 curves) and BV/$Δ$ (the homotopy quotient of Batalin-Vilkovisky operad by the BV-operator). In other words we derive an equivalence of Hycomm-algebras and BV-algebras enhanced with a homotopy that trivializes the BV-operator. These formulas are given in terms of the Givental graphs, and are proved in two different ways. One proof uses the Givental group action, and the other proof goes through a chain of explicit formulas on resolutions of Hycomm and BV. The second…
This paper provides an explicit cofibrant resolution of the operad encoding Batalin-Vilkovisky algebras. Thus it defines the notion of homotopy Batalin-Vilkovisky algebras with the required homotopy properties. To define this resolution we extend the theory of Koszul duality to operads and properads that are defind by quadratic and linear relations. The operad encoding Batalin-Vilkovisky algebras is shown to be Koszul in this sense. This allows us to prove a Poincare-Birkhoff-Witt Theorem for such an operad and to give an explicit small quasi-free resolution for it. This particular resolution …
In order to solve two problems in deformation theory, we establish natural structures of homotopy Lie algebras and of homotopy associative algebras on tensor products of algebras of different types and on mapping spaces between coalgebras and algebras. When considering tensor products, such algebraic structures extend the Lie algebra or associative algebra structures that can be obtained by means of the Manin products of operads. These new homotopy algebra structures are proven by to compatible with the concepts of homotopy theory: $\infty$-morphisms and the Homotopy Transfer Theorem. We give …
In our recent papers [Sh1,2], we introduced a {\it twisted tensor product} of dg categories, and provided, in terms of it, {\it a contractible 2-operad $\mathcal{O}$}, acting on the category of small dg categories, in which the "natural transformations" are derived. We made use of some homotopy theory developed in [To] to prove the contractibility of the 2-operad $\mathcal{O}$. The contractibility is an important issue, in vein of the theory of Batanin [Ba1,2], according to which an action of a contractible $n$-operad on $C$ makes $C$ a weak $n$-category. In this short note, we provide a new e…
First we describe a class of homotopy Frobenius algebras via cyclic operads which we call cyclic $A_\infty$ algebras. We then define a suitable new combinatorial operad which acts on the Hochschild cochains of such an algebra in a manner which encodes the homotopy BV structure. Moreover we show that this operad is equivalent to the cellular chains of a certain topological (quasi)-operad of CW complexes whose constituent spaces form a homotopy associative version of the Cacti operad of Voronov. These cellular chains thus constitute a chain model for the framed little disks operad, proving a cyc…
Stockholm University（斯德哥尔摩大学）；Université Paris Cité and Sorbonne Université, CNRS, IMJ-PRG（巴黎西岱大学和索邦大学，法国国家科学研究中心，IMJ-PRG）；Université d’Angers, LAREMA（昂热大学，LAREMA）
First we argue that many BV and homotopy BV structures, including both familiar and new examples, arise from a common underlying construction. The input of this construction is a cyclic operad along with a cyclically invariant Maurer-Cartan element in an associated Lie algebra. Using this result we introduce and study the operad of cyclically invariant operations, with instances arising in cyclic cohomology and $S^1$ equivariant homology. We compute the homology of the cyclically invariant operations; the result being the homology operad of $\mathcal{M}_{0,n+1}$, the uncompactified moduli spac…
We construct for any algebra over an operad an Hochschild chain complex. In the case of the singular cochain complex of a topological space, considered as a commutative algebra up to homotopy, we show that this complex computes the singular cohomology of the free loop space over this topological space.
In previous works by the authors, a bifunctor was associated to any operadic twisting morphism, taking a coalgebra over a cooperad and an algebra over an operad, and giving back the space of (graded) linear maps between them endowed with a homotopy Lie algebra structure. We build on this result by using a more general notion of $\infty$-morphism between (co)algebras over a (co)operad associated to a twisting morphism, and show that this bifunctor can be extended to take such $\infty$-morphisms in either one of its two slots. We also provide a counterexample proving that it cannot be coherently…
We develop the details of Kontsevich's proof of the formality of little N-disks operad over the field of real numbers. Formality holds in the category of operads of chain complexes and also in some sense in the category of commutative differential graded algebras, which is the category encoding "real" homotopy theory. We also prove a relative version of the formality for the inclusion of the little m-disks operad in the little N-disks operad for N>=2m+1.
This thesis is concerned with the application of operadic methods, particularly modular operads, to questions arising in the study of moduli spaces of surfaces as well as applications to the study of homotopy algebras and new constructions of 'quantum invariants' of manifolds inspired by ideas originating from physics. We consider the extension of classical 2-dimensional topological quantum field theories to Klein topological quantum field theories which allow unorientable surfaces. We generalise open topological conformal field theories to open Klein topological conformal field theories and c…
The framed little 2-discs operad is homotopy equivalent to the Kimura-Stasheff-Voronov cyclic operad of moduli spaces of genus zero stable curves with tangent rays at the marked points and nodes. We show that this cyclic operad is formal, meaning that its chains and its homology (the Batalin-Vilkovisky operad) are quasi-isomorphic cyclic operads. To prove this we introduce a new complex of graphs in which the differential is a combination of edge deletion and contraction, and we show that this complex resolves BV as a cyclic operad.
We extend homological perturbation theory to encompass algebraic structures governed by operads and cooperads. The main difficulty is to find a suitable notion of algebra homotopy that generalizes to algebras over operads O. To solve this problem, we introduce what we call thick maps of O-algebras and special thick maps that we call pseudo-derivations, which serve as appropriate generalizations of algebra homotopies for the purposes of homological perturbation theory. As an application, we derive explicit formulas for transferring Cobar(C)-algebra structures along contractions, where C is any …
We show that the Kontsevich operad, as an operad with multiplication, provides a model for the Taylor tower of the functor defined by taking the homotopy fiber of the inclusion of embeddings of an interval in a cube to the corresponding space of immersions. In developing the Kontsevich operad, we find an operad structure on the simplicial model for the two-sphere, in the opposite category to finite sets. Applications of our result include using machinery of McClure-Smith to produce a little two-disk action on our knot spaces.
We develop a theory of minimal models for algebras over an operad defined over a commutative ring, not necessarily a field, extending and supplementing the work of Sagave in the associative case.
This paper provides a conceptual study of the twisting procedure, which amounts to create functorially new differential graded Lie algebras, associative algebras or operads (as well as their homotopy versions) from a Maurer--Cartan element. On the way, we settle the integration theory of complete pre-Lie algebras in order to describe this twisting procedure in terms of gauge group action. We give a criterion on quadratic operads for the existence of a meaningful twisting procedure of their associated categories of (homotopy) algebras. We also give a new presentation of the twisting procedure f…
This paper establishes a uniform procedure to split the operations in any algebraic operad, generalizing previous known notions of splitting algebraic structures from the dendriform algebra of Loday that splits the associative operation to the successors that split any binary operad. Examples are provided for various $n$-associative algebras, $n$-Lie algebras, $A_\infty$ algebras and $L_\infty$ algebras. Further, the concept of a Rota-Baxter operator, first showing its importance in the associative and Lie algebra context and then generalized to any binary operads, is generalized to arbitrary …
The modular envelope of a cyclic operad is the smallest modular operad containing it. A modular operad is constructed from moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces with boundary; this modular operad is shown to be the modular envelope of the A-infinity cyclic operad. This gives a new proof of the result of Harer-Mumford-Thurston-Penner-Kontsevich that a cell complex built from ribbon graphs is homotopy equivalent to the moduli space of curves.
We study properties of differential graded (dg) operads modulo weak equivalences, that is, modulo the relation given by the existence of a chain of dg operad maps inducing a homology isomorphism. This approach, naturally arising in string theory, leads us to consider various versions of models. Besides of some applications in topology and homological algebra we show that our theory enables one to prove the existence of homotopy structures on physically relevant spaces. For example, we prove that a closed string-field theory induces a homotopy Lie algebra structure on the space of relative stat…
The purpose of this paper is to explain and to generalize, in a homotopical way, the result of Barannikov-Kontsevich and Manin which states that the underlying homology groups of some Batalin-Vilkovisky algebras carry a Frobenius manifold structure. To this extent, we first make the minimal model for the operad encoding BV-algebras explicit. Then we prove a homotopy transfer theorem for the associated notion of homotopy BV-algebra. The final result provides an extension of the action of the homology of the Deligne-Mumford-Knudsen moduli space of genus 0 curves on the homology of some BV-algebr…
We study pre-Lie pairs, by which we mean a pair of a homotopy Lie algebra and a pre-Lie algebra with a compatible pre-Lie action. Such pairs provide a wealth of algebraic structure, which in particular can be used to analyze the homotopy Lie part of the pair. Our main application and the main motivation for this development are the dg Lie algebras of hairy graphs computing the rational homotopy groups of the mapping spaces of the $E_n$ operads. We show that twisting with certain Maurer-Cartan elements trivializes their Lie algebra structure. The result can be used to understand the rational ho…
We argue that some classical local geometries are of infinity origin, i.e. their smooth formal germs are (homotopy) representations of cofibrant (di)operads in spaces concentrated in degree zero. In particular, they admit natural infinity generalizations when one considers homotopy representations of that (di)operads in generic differential graded spaces. Poisson geometry provides us with a simplest manifestation of this phenomenon.
Barton Zwiebach constructed the `string products' on the Hilbert space of combined conformal field theory of matter and ghosts. It is well-known that the `tree level' specialization of these products forms a strongly homotopy Lie algebra. A strongly homotopy Lie algebra is given by a square zero coderivation on the cofree cocommutative connected coalgebra, on the other hand, strongly homotopy Lie algebras are algebras over the cobar construction on the commutative algebras operad. The aim of our paper is to give two similar characterizations of the structure formed by the `string products' of …
Dendriform algebras form a category of algebras recently introduced by Loday. A dendriform algebra is a vector space endowed with two nonassociative binary operations satisfying some relations. Any dendriform algebra is an algebra over the dendriform operad, the Koszul dual of the diassociative operad. We introduce here, by adopting the point of view and the tools offered by the theory of operads, a generalization on a nonnegative integer parameter $γ$ of dendriform algebras, called $γ$-polydendriform algebras, so that $1$-polydendriform algebras are dendriform algebras. For that, we consider …
Functors from (co)operads to bialgebras relate Hopf algebras that occur in renormalisation to operads, which simplifies the proof of the Hopf algebra axioms, and induces a characterisation of the corresponding group of characters and Lie algebra of primitives of the dual in terms of the operad. In addition, it is shown that the Wick rotation formula leads to canonical algebras for one of these operads.
