The space of unordered configurations of distinct points in the plane is aspherical, with Artin's braid group as its fundamental group. Remarkably enough, the space of ordered configurations of distinct points on the real projective line, modulo projective equivalence, has a natural compactification (as a space of equivalence classes of trees) which is also (by a theorem of Davis, Januszkiewicz, and Scott) aspherical. The classical braid groups are ubiquitous in modern mathematics, with applications from the theory of operads to the study of the Galois group of the rationals. The fundamental groups of these new configuration spaces are not braid groups, but they have many similar formal properties.
We establish certain smash operations on spaces over operads which are general analogues of the Samelson product on single loop spaces, and obtain a conceptual description of the structure of the homotopy groups of spaces $Y$ over a symmetric $K(π,1)$ operad: $π_*Y$ is a module over the free algebraic symmetric operad generated by operations on homotopy groups induced by these smash operations. In particular the homotopy groups of double loop spaces is a module over the free algebraic symmetric operad generated by the conjugacy classes of Brunnian braids modulo the conjugation action of pure b…
We propose a new unifying framework for Thompson-like groups using a well-known device called operads and category theory as language. We discuss examples of operad groups which have appeared in the literature before. As a first application, we proof a theorem which implies that planar or symmetric or braided operads with transformations satisfying some finiteness conditions yield operad groups of type $F_\infty$. This unifies and extends existing proofs that certain Thompson-like groups are of type $F_\infty$.
We construct an operad $\mathrm{Phyl}$ whose operations are the edge-labelled trees used in phylogenetics. This operad is the coproduct of $\mathrm{Com}$, the operad for commutative semigroups, and $[0,\infty)$, the operad with unary operations corresponding to nonnegative real numbers, where composition is addition. We show that there is a homeomorphism between the space of $n$-ary operations of $\mathrm{Phyl}$ and $\mathcal{T}_n\times [0,\infty)^{n+1}$, where $\mathcal{T}_n$ is the space of metric $n$-trees introduced by Billera, Holmes and Vogtmann. Furthermore, we show that the Markov mode…
We extend Thomason's homotopy colimit construction in the category of permutative categories to categories of algebras over an arbitrary $\Cat$ operad and analyze its properties. We then use this homotopy colimit to prove that the classifying space functor induces an equivalence between the category of $n$-fold monoidal categories and the category of $\mathcal{C}_n$-spaces after formally inverting certain classes of weak equivalences, where $\mathcal{C}_n$ is the little $n$-cubes operad. As a consequence we obtain an equivalence of the categories of $n$-fold monoidal categories and the categor…
We discuss a variant of the category of dendroidal sets, the so-called closed dendroidal sets which are indexed by trees without leaves. This category carries a Quillen model structure which behaves better than the one on general dendroidal sets, mainly because it satisfies the pushout-product property, hence induces a symmetric monoidal structure on its homotopy category. We also study complete Segal style model structures on closed dendroidal spaces, and various Quillen adjunctions to model categories on (all) dendroidal sets or spaces. As a consequence, we deduce a Quillen equivalence from …
The framed n-discs operad fD_n is studied as semidirect product of SO(n) and the little n-discs operad. Our equivariant recognition principle says that a grouplike space acted on by fD_n is equivalent to the n-fold loop space on a SO(n)-space. Examples of fD_2-spaces are nerves of ribbon braided monoidal categories. We compute the rational homology of fD_n. Koszul duality for semidirect product operads of chain complexes is defined and applied to compute the double loop space homology as BV-algebra.
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…
We introduce a convenient definition for weak cyclic operads, which is based on unrooted trees and Segal conditions. More specifically, we introduce a category $Ξ$ of trees, which carries a tight relationship to the Moerdijk-Weiss category of rooted trees $Ω$. We prove a nerve theorem exhibiting colored cyclic operads as presheaves on $Ξ$ which satisfy a Segal condition. Finally, we produce a Quillen model category whose fibrant objects satisfy a weak Segal condition, and we consider these objects as an up-to-homotopy generalization of the concept of cyclic operad.
In this expository paper we give an elementary, hands-on computation of the homology of the little disks operad, showing that the homology of a $d-fold loop space is a Poisson algebra. One aim is to familiarize a greater audience with Euclidean configuration spaces, using tools accessible to second-year graduate students. We also give a brief introduction to the theory of operads. New results include identifying the pairing between homology and cohomology of these spaces as a pairing of graphs and trees, and treating the cooperad structure on cohomology.
We introduce the classical theory of the interplay between group theory and topology into the context of operads and explore some applications to homotopy theory. We first propose a notion of a group operad and then develop a theory of group operads, extending the classical theories of groups, spaces with actions of groups, covering spaces and classifying spaces of groups. In particular, the fundamental groups of a topological operad is naturally a group operad and its higher homotopy groups are naturally operads with actions of its fundamental groups operad, and a topological $K(π,1)$ operad …
For a tree $T$ and a positive integer $n$, let $B_nT$ denote the $n$-strand braid group on $T$. We use discrete Morse theory techniques to show that the cohomology ring $H^*(B_nT)$ is encoded by an explicit abstract simplicial complex $K_nT$ that measures $n$-local interactions among essential vertices of $T$. We show that, in many cases (for instance when $T$ is a binary tree), $H^*(B_nT)$ is the exterior face ring determined by $K_nT$.
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 show that normalized cacti form an $\infty$-operad in the form of a dendroidal space satisfying a weak Segal condition. To do this, we introduce a new topological operad of bracketed trees and an enrichment of the dendroidal category $Ω$.
If G is a finite graph and n is a natural number, then the n-strand braid group of G is the fundamental group of the configuration space of n points on G. This article gives a complete computation of the integral cohomology rings of the n-strand braid groups in case G is a tree. Some of the argument builds on earlier joint work with Lucas Sabalka.
We solve the isomorphism problem for braid groups on trees with $n = 4$ or 5 strands. We do so in three main steps, each of which is interesting in its own right. First, we establish some tools and terminology for dealing with computations using the cohomology of tree braid groups, couching our discussion in the language of differential forms. Second, we show that, given a tree braid group $B_nT$ on $n = 4$ or 5 strands, $H^*(B_nT)$ is an exterior face algebra. Finally, we prove that one may reconstruct the tree $T$ from a tree braid group $B_nT$ for $n = 4$ or 5. Among other corollaries, this…
We develop a notion of iterated monoidal category and show that this notion corresponds in a precise way to the notion of iterated loop space. Specifically the group completion of the nerve of such a category is an iterated loop space and free iterated monoidal categories give rise to finite simplicial operads of the same homotopy type as the classical little cubes operads used to parametrize the higher H-space structure of iterated loop spaces. Iterated monoidal categories encompass, as a special case, the notion of braided tensor categories, as used in the theory of quantum groups.
A function from configuration space to moduli space of surface may induce a homomorphism between their fundamental groups which are braid groups and mapping class groups of surface, respectively. This map $ϕ: B_k \rightarrow Γ_{g,b}$ is induced by 3-fold branched covering over a disk with some branch points. In this thesis we give a concrete description of this map and show that it is injective by Birman-Hilden theory. This gives us a new interesting non-geometric embedding of braid group into mapping class group. On the other hand, we show that the map on the level of classifying spaces of gr…
Let $Γ$ be a finite connected graph. The (unlabelled) configuration space $UC^n Γ$ of $n$ points on $Γ$ is the space of $n$-element subsets of $Γ$. The $n$-strand braid group of $Γ$, denoted $B_nΓ$, is the fundamental group of $UC^n Γ$. We use the methods and results of our paper "Discrete Morse theory and graph braid groups" to get a partial description of the cohomology rings $H^*(B_n T)$, where $T$ is a tree. Our results are then used to prove that $B_n T$ is a right-angled Artin group if and only if $T$ is linear or $n<4$. This gives a large number of counterexamples to Ghrist's conjecture…
Let G be a chordal graph, X(G) the complement of the associated complex arrangement and Gamma(G) the fundamental group of X(G). We show that Gamma(G) is a limit of colored braid groups over the poset of simplices of G. When G = G_T is the comparability graph associated with a rooted tree T, a case recently investigated by the first author, the result takes the following very simple form: Gamma(G_T) is a limit over T of colored braid groups.
For a tree $G$, we study the changing behaviors in the homology groups $H_i(B_nG)$ as $n$ varies, where $B_nG := π_1($UConf$_n(G))$. We prove that the ranks of these homologies can be described by a single polynomial for all $n$, and construct this polynomial explicitly in terms of invariants of the tree $G$. To accomplish this we prove that the group $\bigoplus_n H_i(B_nG)$ can be endowed with the structure of a finitely generated graded module over an integral polynomial ring, and further prove that it naturally decomposes as a direct sum of graded shifts of squarefree monomial ideals. Follo…
We define and study a model of winding for non-colliding particles in finite trees. We prove that the asymptotic behavior of this statistic satisfies a central limiting theorem, analogous to similar results on winding of bounded particles in the plane. We also propose certain natural open questions and conjectures, whose confirmation would provide new insights on configuration spaces of trees.
