Motivated by ideas from stable homotopy theory we study the space of strongly homotopy associative multiplications on a two-cell chain complex. In the simplest case this moduli space is isomorphic to the set of orbits of a group of invertible power series acting on a certain space. The Hochschild cohomology rings of resulting A-infinity algebras have an interpretation as totally ramified extensions of discrete valuation rings. All A-infinity algebras are supposed to be unital and we give a detailed analysis of unital structures which is of independent interest.
Associative conformal algebras of conformal endomorphisms are of essential importance for the study of finite representations of conformal Lie algebras (Lie vertex algebras). We describe all semisimple algebras of conformal endomorphisms which have the trivial second Hochschild cohomology group with coefficients in every conformal bimodule. As a consequence, we state a complete solution of the radical splitting problem in the class of associative conformal algebras with a finite faithful representation.
We study string topology for classifying spaces of connected compact Lie groups, drawing connections with Hochschild cohomology and equivariant homotopy theory. First, for a compact Lie group $G$, we show that the string topology prospectrum $LBG^{-TBG}$ is equivalent to the homotopy fixed-point prospectrum for the conjugation action of $G$ on itself, $G^{hG}$. Dually, we identify $LBG^{-ad}$ with the homotopy orbit spectrum $(DG)_{hG}$, and study ring and co-ring structures on these spectra. Finally, we show that in homology, these products may be identified with the Gerstenhaber cup product …
The Kontsevich-Soibelman solution of the cyclic version of Deligne's conjecture and the formality of the operad of little discs on a cylinder provide us with a natural homotopy calculus structure on the pair (C^*(A), C_*(A)) ``Hochschild cochains + Hochschild chains'' of an associative algebra A. We show that for an arbitrary smooth algebraic variety X with the structure sheaf O_X the sheaf (C^*(O_X), C_*(O_X)) of homotopy calculi is formal. This result was announced in paper [29] by the second and the third author.
The associator of a non-associative algebra is the curvature of the Hochschild quasi-complex. The relationship ``curvature-associator'' is investigated. Based on this generic example, we extend the geometric language of vector fields to a purely algebraic setting, similar to the context of Gerstenhaber algebras. We interprete the elements of a non-associative algebra with a Lie bracket as ``vector fields'' and the multiplication as a connection. We investigate conditions for the existance of an ``algebra of functions'' having as algebra of derivations the original non-associative algebra.
We construct a Frobenius algebra structure on the Hochschild cochains of a group ring k[G] that extends the known structure of a <1, 2> topological quantum field theory on HH^0(k[G]; k[G]), k a field and G a finite group. The convolution product extends to the homotopy commutative Gerstenhaber product on cochains, the Frobenius coproduct extends to a coproduct on the chain complex for Hochschild homology, and there is a pairing on Hochschild cocahins satisfying Frobenius associativity. The pairing, however, degenerates on a certain subcomplex of Hochschild cochains. The cochain complex for gro…
The solution of Deligne's conjecture on Hochschild cochains and the formality of the operad of little disks provide us with a natural homotopy Gerstenhaber algebra structure on the Hochschild cochains of an associative algebra. In this paper we construct a natural chain of quasi-isomorphisms of homotopy Gerstenhaber algebras between the Hochschild cochain complex C(A) of a regular commutative algebra A over a field of characteristic zero and the Gerstenhaber algebra of multiderivations of A. Unlike the original approach of the second author based on the computation of obstructions our method a…
We will introduce an operation "twisting" on Hochschild complex by analogy with Drinfeld's twisting operations. By using the twisting and derived bracket construction, we will study differential graded Lie algebra structures associated with bi-graded Hochschild complex. We will show that Rota-Baxter type operators are solutions of Maurer-Cartan equations. As an application of twisting, we will give a construction of associative Nijenhuis operators.
Deligne asked in 1993 whether the Hochschild cochain complex of an associative ring has a natural action by the singular chains of the little 2-cubes operad. In this paper we give an affirmative answer to this question. We also show that the topological Hochschild cohomology spectrum of an associative ring spectrum has an action of an operad equivalent to the little 2-cubes.
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 consider L-infinity quasi-isomorphisms for Hochschild cochains whose structure maps admit "graphical expansion". We introduce the notion of stable formality quasi-isomorphism which formalizes such an L-infinity quasi-isomorphism. We define a homotopy equivalence on the set of stable formality quasi-isomorphisms and prove that the set of homotopy classes of stable formality quasi-isomorphisms form a torsor for the group corresponding to the zeroth cohomology of the full (directed) graph complex. This result may be interpreted as a complete description of homotopy classes of formality quasi-i…
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.
Hochschild two-cocycles play an important role in the deformation à la Gerstenhaber of associative algebras. The aim of this paper is to introduce the category of Hoch-algebras whose objects are associative algebras equipped with an extra magmatic operation \succ verifying the Hochschild two-cocycle relation: (x \succ y)*z+ (x*y)\succ z= x\succ (y*z)+ x*(y\succ z). The free Hoch-algebra over a K-vector space is given in terms of planar rooted trees and the triples of operads (As,Hoch, Mag^\infty) endowed with the infinitesimal relations are shown to be good. We then obtain an equivalence of ca…
We give a quick method of constructing strong homotopy associative algebra, namely, the higher derived product construction. This method is associative analogue of classical higher derived bracket construction in the category of Loday algebras. We introduce a new type of algebra "Loday pair" which is noncommutative analogue of classical Leibniz pair. We study strong homotopy Loday pairs and the higher derived brackets on the Loday pairs.
A first goal of this paper is to precisely relate the homotopy theories of bialgebras and $E_2$-algebras. For this, we construct a conservative and fully faithful $\infty$-functor from pointed conilpotent homotopy bialgebras to augmented $E_2$-algebras which consists in an appropriate "cobar" construction. Then we prove that the (derived) formal moduli problem of homotopy bialgebras structures on a bialgebra is equivalent to the (derived) formal moduli problem of $E_2$-algebra structures on this "cobar" construction. We show consequently that the $E_3$-algebra structure on the higher Hochschil…
Given any modular category $\mathcal{C}$ over an algebraically closed field $k$, we extract a sequence $(M_g)_{g\geq 0}$ of $\mathcal{C}$-bimodules. We show that the Hochschild chain complex $CH(\mathcal{C};M_g)$ of $\mathcal{C}$ with coefficients in $M_g$ carries a canonical homotopy coherent projective action of the mapping class group of the surface of genus $g+1$. The ordinary Hochschild complex of $\mathcal{C}$ corresponds to $CH(\mathcal{C};M_0)$. This result is obtained as part of the following more comprehensive topological structure: We construct a symmetric monoidal functor $\mathfra…
We define a BV-structure on the Hochschild-cohomology of a unital, associative algebra A with a symmetric, invariant and non-degenerate inner product. The induced Gerstenhaber algebra is the one described in Gerstenhaber's original paper on Hochschild-cohomology. We also prove the corresponding theorem in the homotopy case, namely we define the BV-structure on the Hochschild-cohomology of a unital A-infinity-algebra with a symmetric and non-degenerate infinity-inner product.
We generalize the coupled braces {x}{y} of Gerstenhaber and {x}{y,...,z} of Getzler depicting compositions of multilinear maps in the Hochschild complex C(A)=Hom(TA;A) of a graded vector space A to expressions of the form {x,...,y}...{z,...,w} on the extended space Hom(TA;TA), and clarify many of the existing sign conventions that show up in the algebra of mathematical physics (namely in associative and Lie algebras, Batalin-Vilkovisky algebras, homotopy associative and homotopy Lie algebras). As a result, we introduce a new variant of the master identity for homotopy Lie algebras. We also com…
We construct a differential and a Lie bracket on the space\linebreak $\{\Hom (A^{\otimes k}, A^{\otimes l})\},_{k,l\ge 0}$ for any associative algebra $A$. The restriction of this bracket to the space $\{\Hom (A^{\otimes k}, A)\},_{k\ge 0}$ is exactly the Gerstenhaber bracket. We discuss some formality conjecture related with this construction. We also discuss some applications to deformation theory.
With the help of the multigraded Nijenhuis-- Richardson bracket and the multigraded Gerstenhaber bracket from [7] for every $n\ge 2$ we define $n$-ary associative algebras and their modules and also $n$-ary Lie algebras and their modules, and we give the relevant formulas for Hochschild and Chevalley cohomogy.
We prove that the shifted Hochschild chain complex $C\_*(A,A)[m]$ of a symmetric open Frobenius algebra $A$ of degree $m$ has a natural homotopy coBV-algebra structure. As a consequence $HH\_*(A,A)[m]$ and $HH^*(A,A^\vee)[-m]$ are respectively coBV and BV algebras. The underlying coalgebra and algebra structure may not be resp. counital and unital. We also introduce a natural homotopy BV-algebra structure on $C\_*(A,A)[m]$ hence a BV-structure on $HH\_*(A,A)[m]$. Moreover we prove that the product and coproduct on $HH\_*(A,A)[m]$ satisfy the Frobenius compatibility condition i.e. $HH\_*(A,A)[m…
The Hochschild homology/cohomology an associative algebra, together with the Connes differential, the contraction map and the Lie derivative, forms the structure of calculus. In this paper we compute explicitely the calculus structure of preprojective algebras of Dynkin quivers over a field of characteristic zero. This also completes the work in math.AG/0502301, where the Batalin-Vilkovisky structure of the Hochschild cohomology of preprojective algebras of non-Dynkin quivers are computed and the calculus can be easily computed from that.
The strong homotopy Lie algebra, controlling simultaneous deformations of a morphism of associative algebras and its domain and codomain is constructed. Isomorphism of the cohomology of this strong homotopy Lie algebra with the classical construction is shown.
An involutive distribution $C$ on a smooth manifold $M$ is a Lie-algebroid acting on sections of the normal bundle $TM/C$. It is known that the Chevalley-Eilenberg complex associated to this representation of $C$ possesses the structure $\mathbb{X}$ of a strong homotopy Lie-Rinehart algebra. It is natural to interpret $\mathbb{X}$ as the (derived) Lie-Rinehart algebra of vector fields on the space $\mathbb{P}$ of integral manifolds of $C$. In this paper, I show that $\mathbb{X}$ is embedded in a strong homotopy associative algebra $\mathbb{D}$ of (normal) differential operators. It is natural …
In a classic paper, Gerstenhaber showed that first order deformations of an associative k-algebra A are controlled by the second Hochschild cohomology group of A. More generally, any n-parameter first order deformation of A gives, due to commutativity of the cup-product on Hochschild cohomology, a morphism from the graded algebra Sym(k^n) to Ext^*(A,A), the Ext-algebra in the category of A-bimodules. We prove that any extension of the n-parameter first order deformation of A to an INFINITE ORDER formal deformation provides a canonical `lift' of the graded algebra morphism above to a dg-algebra…
We compute the second Hochschild cohomology space $HH^2(\mathcal{H}_1)$ of Connes-Moscovici's Hopf algebra $\mathcal{H}_1$, giving the infinitesimal deformations (up to equivalence) of the associative structure. $HH^2(\mathcal{H}_1)$ is shown to be one dimensional, and thus Connes-Moscovici's formal deformation of $\mathcal{H}_1$ using Rankin-Cohen brackets is unique up to equivalence.
We apply discrete algebraic Morse theory to the computation of Hochschild cohomologies of associative conformal algebras. As an example, we evaluate the dimensions of the universal associative conformal envelope $U(3)$ of the Virasoro Lie conformal algebra relative to the associative locality $N=3$ on the generator with scalar coefficients.
$G_\infty$-structure is shown to exist on the deformation complex of a morphism of associative algebras. The main step of the construction is extension of a $B_\infty$-algebra by an associative algebra. Actions of $B_\infty$-algebras on associative and $B_\infty$-algebras are analyzed, extensions of $B_\infty$-algebras by associative and $B_\infty$-algebras, that they act upon, are constructed. The resulting $G_\infty$-algebra on the deformation complex of a morphism is shown to be quasi-isomorphic to the $G_\infty$-algebra on deformation complex of the corresponding diagram algebra.
We show that the braided Hochschild cohomology, of an algebra in a suitably algebraic braided monoidal category, admits a graded ring structure under which it is braided commutative. We then give a canonical identification between the usual Hochschild cohomology ring of a smash product and the (derived) invariants of its braided Hochschild cohomology ring. We apply our results to identify the associative formal deformation theory of a smash product with its formal deformation theory as a module algebra over the given Hopf algebra (when the Hopf algebra is sufficiently semisimple). As a second …
The goal of this paper is to complete Getzler-Jones' proof of Deligne's Conjecture, thereby establishing an explicit relationship between the geometry of configurations of points in the plane and the Hochschild complex of an associative algebra. More concretely, it is shown that the $B_\infty$-operad, which is generated by multilinear operations known to act on the Hochschild complex, is a quotient of a certain operad associated to the compactified configuration spaces. Different notions of homotopy Gerstenhaber algebras are discussed: one of them is a $B_\infty$-algebra, another, called a hom…
We set up a homological algebra for N-complexes, which are graded modules together with a degree -1 endomorphism d satisfying d^N=0. We define Tor- and Ext-groups for N-complexes and we compute them in terms of their classical counterparts (N=2). As an application, we get an alternative definition of the Hochschild homology of an associative algebra out of an N-complex whose differential is based on a primitive N-th root of unity.
It has been shown in previous work that the modular group acts projectively on the center of a factorizable ribbon Hopf algebra. The center is the zeroth Hochschild cohomology group. In this article, we extend this projective action of the modular group to an arbitrary Hochschild cohomology group of a factorizable ribbon Hopf algebra, in fact up to homotopy even to a projective action on the entire Hochschild cochain complex.
We point out that for Yetter's deformational Hochschild complex of a monoidal functor between abelian monoidal categories the Gerstenhaber-Voronov type operations can be defined making it a strong homotopy Gerstenhaber algebra. This encodes deformation theory of monoidal functors in an analogical way as deformation theory of associative algebras is described by the strong homotopy Gerstenhaber algebra structure on the corresponding Hochschild cochains. We describe a quasi-classical limit of deformations of a symmetric monoidal functor in terms of Poisson type structure.
We prove that two quasi-isomorphic simply connected differential graded associative Frobenius algebras have isomorphic Goresky-Hingston algebras on their reduced Hochschild homology. Our proof is based on relating the Goresky-Hingston algebra on reduced Hochschild homology to the singular Hochschild cohomology algebra. For any simply connected oriented closed manifold $M$ of dimension $k$, the Goresky-Hingston algebra on reduced Hochschild homology induces an algebra structure of degree $k-1$ on $\bar{H}^*(LM;\mathbb{Q})$, the reduced rational cohomology of the free loop space of $M$. As a con…
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.
Using non-commutative differential forms, we construct a complex called singular Hochschild cochain complex for any associative algebra over a field. The cohomology of this complex is isomorphic to the Tate-Hochschild cohomology in the sense of Buchweitz. By a natural action of the cellular chain operad of the spineless cacti operad, introduced by R. Kaufmann, on the singular Hochschild cochain complex, we provide a proof of the Deligne's conjecture for this complex. More concretely, the complex is an algebra over the (dg) operad of chains of the little $2$-discs operad. By this action, we als…
We study the L-infinity-formality problem for the Hochschild complex of the universal enveloping algebra of some examples of Lie algebras such as Cartan-3-regular quadratic Lie algebras (for example semisimple Lie algebras and in more detail so(3)), and free Lie algebras generated by a vector space of dimension at least 2. We show that for these examples formality in Kontsevich's sense does NOT hold, although some of them allow unconditioned deformability. We compute the L-infinity-structure on the cohomology given by homotopy transfer in certain cases.
We study cohomology theories of strongly homotopy algebras, namely $A_\infty, C_\infty$ and $L_\infty$-algebras and establish the Hodge decomposition of Hochschild and cyclic cohomology of $C_\infty$-algebras thus generalising previous work by Loday and Gerstenhaber-Schack. These results are then used to show that a $C_\infty$-algebra with an invariant inner product on its cohomology can be uniquely extended to a symplectic $C_\infty$-algebra (an $\infty$-generalisation of a commutative Frobenius algebra introduced by Kontsevich). As another application, we show that the `string topology' oper…
This paper introduces a chain model for the Deligne-Mumford operad formed by homotopically trivializing the circle in a chain model for the framed little disks. We then show that under degeneration of the Hochschild to cyclic cohomology spectral sequence, a known action of the framed little disks on Hochschild cochains lifts to an action of this new chain model. We thus establish homotopy hyper-commutative algebra structures on both Hochschild and cyclic cochain complexes, and we interpret the gravity brackets on cyclic cohomology as obstructions to degeneration of this spectral sequence. Our …
In this paper, we introduce the cohomology theory of $\mathcal{O}$-operators on Hom-associative algebras. This cohomology can also be viewed as the Hochschild cohomology of a certain Hom-associative algebra with coefficients in a suitable bimodule. Next, we study infinitesimal and formal deformations of an $\mathcal{O}$-operator and show that they are governed by the above-defined cohomology. Furthermore, the notion of Nijenhuis elements associated with an $\mathcal{O}$-operator is introduced to characterize trivial infinitesimal deformations.
It is proved that the associative differential graded algebra of (polynomial) polyvector fields on a vector space (may be infinite- dimensional) is quasi-isomorphic to the corresponding cohomological Hochschild complex of (polynomial) functions on this vector space as an associative differential graded algebra. This result is an $A_\infty$-version of the Formality conjecture of Maxim Kontsevich [K].
In this paper we extend Toën's derived Hall algebra construction, in which he obtains unital associative algebras from certain stable model categories, to one in which such algebras are obtained from more general stable homotopy theories, in particular stable complete Segal spaces satisfying appropriate finiteness assumptions.
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 …
Modular functors, i.e. consistent systems of projective representations of mapping class groups of surfaces, have been constructed for non-semisimple modular categories already decades ago. Concepts from homological algebra have not been used in this construction although it is an obvious question how they should enter in the non-semisimple case. In the present paper, we elucidate the interplay between the structures from topological field theory and from homological algebra by constructing a homotopy coherent projective action of the mapping class group $\text{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$ of the torus …
We consider inner deformations of families of $A_\infty$-algebras. With the help of noncommutative Cartan's calculus, we prove the invariance of Hochschild (co)homology under inner deformations. The invariance also holds for cyclic cohomology classes that satisfy some additional conditions. Applications to dg-algebras and QFT problems are briefly discussed.
We construct two algebraic versions of homotopy theory of rational disconnected topological spaces, one based on differential graded commutative associative algebras and the other one on complete differential graded Lie algebras. As an application of the developed technology we obtain results on the structure of Maurer-Cartan spaces of complete differential graded Lie algebras.
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…
Let A be a finite dimensional, unital, and associative algebra which is endowed with a non-degenerate and invariant inner product. We give an explicit description of an action of cyclic Sullivan chord diagrams on the normalized Hochschild cochain complex of A. As a corollary, the Hochschild cohomology of A becomes a Frobenius algebra which is endowed with a compatible BV operator. If A is also commutative, then the discussion extends to an action of general Sullivan chord diagrams. Some implications of this are discussed.
In this paper, we introduce the notions of crossed module of associative conformal algebras, 2-term strongly homotopy associative conformal algebras, and discuss the relationship between them and the 3-th Hochschild cohomology of associative conformal algebras. We classify the non-abelian extensions by introducing the non-abelian cohomology. We show that non-abelian extensions of an associative conformal algebra can be viewed as Maurer-Cartan elements of a suitable differential graded Lie algebra, and prove that the Deligne groupoid of this differential graded Lie algebra corresponds one to on…
Given an associative graded algebra equipped with a degree +1 differential we define an A-infinity structure that measures the failure of the differential to be a derivation. This can be seen as a non-commutative analog of generalized BV-algebras. In that spirit we introduce a notion of associative order for the differential and prove that it satisfies properties similar to the commutative case. In particular when it has associative order 2 the new product is a strictly associative product of degree +1 and there is a compatibility between the products, similar to ordinary BV-algebras. We consi…
The present paper can be thought of as a continuation of the paper "Introduction to sh Lie algebras for physicists" by T. Lada and J. Stasheff (International Journal of Theoretical Physics Vol. 32, No. 7 (1993), 1087--1103, appeared also as preprint hep-th/9209099) which provided an exposition of the basic ingredients of the theory of strongly homotopy Lie algebras sufficient for the underpinnings of the physically relevant examples. We demonstrate the `strong homotopy' analog of the usual relation between Lie and associative algebras and investigate the universal enveloping algebra functor em…
In this article, we use Harrison cohomology to provide a framework for commutative deformations. In particular, Kontsevich's result that formality of (the Hochschild complex of) an associative algebra implies its deformability is adapted for commutative algebras, with the Harrison complex.
