This note was originated many years ago as my reaction to questions of several people how free strongly homotopy algebras can be described and what can be said about the structure of the universal enveloping A(m)-algebra of an L(m)-algebra, and then circulated as a "personal communication." I must honestly admit that it contains no really deep result and that everything I did was that I expanded definitions and formulated a couple of statements with more or less obvious proofs.
We prove that strongly homotopy algebras (such as $A_\infty$, $C_\infty$, sh Lie, $B_\infty$, $G_\infty$,...) are homotopically invariant in the category of chain complexes. An important consequence is a rigorous proof that `strongly homotopy structures transfer over chain homotopy equivalences.'
We show that any homotopy Gerstenhaber algebra is naturally a strongly homotopy commutative (shc) algebra in the sense of Stasheff-Halperin with a homotopy associative structure map. In the presence of certain additional operations corresponding to a cup-1 product on the bar construction, the structure map becomes homotopy commutative, so that one obtains an shc algebra in the sense of Munkholm.
In [math.AT/9907138] we proved that strongly homotopy algebras are homotopy invariant concepts in the category of chain complexes. Our arguments were based on the fact that strongly homotopy algebras are algebras over minimal cofibrant operads and on the principle that algebras over cofibrant operads are homotopy invariant. In our approach, algebraic models for colored operads describing diagrams of homomorphisms played an important role. The aim of this paper is to give an explicit description of these models. A possible application is an appropriate formulation of the `ideal' homological per…
The aim of this brief note is mainly to advocate our approach to homotopy algebras based on the minimal model of an operad. Our exposition is motivated by two examples which we discuss very explicitly - the example of strongly homotopy associative algebras and the example of strongly homotopy Lie algebras. We then indicate what must be proved in order to show that these homotopy algebraic structures are really `stable under a homotopy.' The paper is based on a talk given by the author on June 16, 1998, at University of Osnabrueck, Germany.
We develop a homotopy theory of $L_\infty$ algebras based on the Lawrence-Sullivan construction, a complete differential graded Lie algebra which, as we show, satisfies the necessary properties to become the right cylinder in this category. As a result, we obtain a general procedure to algebraically model the rational homotopy type of non-connected spaces.
Quillen showed how to describe the homotopy theory of simply-connected rational spaces in terms of differential graded Lie algebras. Here we survey a generalization of Quillen's results that describes the $v_n$-periodic localizations of homotopy theory (where rational corresponds to $n=0$) in terms of spectral Lie algebras. The latter form an extension of the theory of Lie algebras to the setting of stable homotopy theory. This is a chapter written for the Handbook of Homotopy Theory edited by Haynes Miller.
We define inductively a sequence of purely algebraic invariants - namely, classes in the Quillen cohomology of the Pi-algebra π_* X - for distinguishing between different homotopy types of spaces. Another sequence of such cohomology classes allows one to decide whether a given abstract Pi-algebra can be realized as the homotopy Pi-algebra of a space in the first place. The paper is written for a relatively general "resolution model category", so it also applies, for example, to rational homotopy types.
In the rational cohomology of a 1-connected space a structure of $C_{\infty}$-algebra is constructed and it is shown that this object determines the rational homotopy type
We prove that a weak equivalence between two cofibrant (colored) props in chain complexes induces a Dwyer-Kan equivalence between the simplicial localizations of the associated categories of algebras. This homotopy invariance under base change implies that the homotopy category of homotopy algebras over a prop P does not depend on the choice of a cofibrant resolution of P, and gives thus a coherence to the notion of algebra up to homotopy in this setting. The result is established more generally for algebras in combinatorial monoidal dg categories.
We calculate the higher homotopy groups of the Deligne-Getzler infinity-groupoid associated to a nilpotent L-infinity algebra. As an application, we present a new approach to the rational homotopy theory of mapping spaces.
On the tensor product of two homotopy Gerstenhaber algebras we construct a Hirsch algebra structure which extends the canonical dg algebra structure. Our result applies more generally to tensor products of "level 3 Hirsch algebras" and also to the Mayer-Vietoris double complex.
We construct Lie algebras of derivations (and identify their geometrical realization) whose Maurer-Cartan sets provide moduli spaces describing the classes of homotopy types of rational spaces sharing either the same homotopy Lie algebra, homology or cohomology.
We study the notion of twisting elements $da=a\cup_1a$ with respect to $\cup_1$ product when it is a part of homotopy Gerstenhaber algebra structure. This allows to bring to one context the two classical concepts, the theory of deformation of algebras of M. Gerstenhaber, and $A(\infty)$-algebras of J. Stasheff.
We prove an equivalence of categories from formal complex structures with formal holomorphic maps to homotopy algebras over a simple operad with its associated homotopy morphisms. We extend this equivalence to complex manifolds. A complex structure on a smooth manifold corresponds in this way to a family of algebras indexed by the points of the manifold.
Multi-sorted algebraic theories provide a formalism for describing various structures on spaces that are of interest in homotopy theory. The results of Badzioch and Bergner showed that an interesting feature of this formalism is the following rigidification property. Every multi-sorted algebraic theory defines a category of homotopy algebras, i.e. a category of spaces equipped with certain structure that is to some extent homotopy invariant. Each such homotopy algebra can be replaced by a weakly equivalent strict algebra which is a purely algebraic structure on a space. The equivalence between…
This is an expository article about operads in homotopy theory written as a chapter for an upcoming book. It concentrates on what the author views as the basic topics in the homotopy theory of operadic algebras: the definition of operads, the definition of algebras over operads, structural aspects of categories of algebras over operads, model structures on algebra categories, and comparison of algebra categories when changing operad or underlying category. In addition, it includes two applications of the theory: The original application to $n$-fold loop spaces, and an application to algebraic …
Let A be a geometric arrangement such that codim(x) > 1 for every x in A. We prove that, if the complement space M(A) is rationally hyperbolic, then there exists an injective from a free Lie algebra L(u,v) to the homotopy Lie algebra of M(A).
The theory of secondary chomology operations leads to a conjecture concerning the algebra of higher cohomology operations in general. This conjecture is discussed here in detail and its connection with homotopy groups of spheres and the Adams spectral sequence is described.
Primary cohomology operations, i.e., elements of the Steenrod algebra, are given by homotopy classes of maps between Eilenberg--MacLane spectra. Such maps (before taking homotopy classes) form the topological version of the Steenrod algebra. Composition of such maps is strictly linear in one variable and linear up to coherent homotopy in the other variable. To describe this structure, we introduce a hierarchy of higher distributivity laws, and prove that the topological Steenrod algebra satisfies all of them. We show that the higher distributivity laws are homotopy invariant in a suitable sens…
We show that the tensor product of two cyclic $A_\infty$-algebras is, in general, not a cyclic $A_\infty$-algebra, but an $A_\infty$-algebra with homotopy inner product. More precisely, we construct an explicit combinatorial diagonal on the pairahedra, which are contractible polytopes controlling the combinatorial structure of an $A_\infty$-algebra with homotopy inner products, and use it to define a categorically closed tensor product. A cyclic $A_\infty$-algebra can be thought of as an $A_\infty$-algebra with homotopy inner products whose higher inner products are trivial. However, the highe…
The primary algebraic model of a ring spectrum is the ring of homotopy groups. We introduce the secondary model which has the structure of a secondary analogue of a ring. This new algebraic model determines Massey products and cup-one squares. As an application we obtain new derivations of the homotopy ring.
Anick proved that every q-mild Hopf algebra up to homotopy is isomorphic to a primitively-generated chain Hopf algebra. We provide a new proof, that involves extensive use of the Bockstein spectral sequence.
We prove the existence of minimal models a la Sullivan for operads with non-trivial arity zero. So, up to homotopy algebras with strict units are just operad algebras over these minimal models. As an application we give another proof of the formality of the unitary n-little disks operad over the rationals.
In this paper an algebraic model for unbased rational homotopy theory from the perspective of curved Lie algebras is constructed. As part of this construction a model structure for the category of pseudo-compact curved Lie algebras with curved morphisms will be introduced; one which is Quillen equivalent to a certain model structure of unital commutative differential graded algebras, thus extending the known Quillen equivalence of augmented algebras and differential graded Lie algebras.
We give a survey of a generalization of Quillen-Sullivan rational homotopy theory which gives spectral algebra models of unstable v_n-periodic homotopy types. In addition to describing and contextualizing our original approach, we sketch two other recent approaches which are of a more conceptual nature, due to Arone-Ching and Heuts. In the process, we also survey many relevant concepts which arise in the study of spectral algebra over operads, including topological André-Quillen cohomology, Koszul duality, and Goodwillie calculus.
This paper provides an extensive study of the homotopy theory of types of algebras with units, like unital associative algebras or unital commutative algebras for instance. To this purpose, we endow the Koszul dual category of curved coalgebras, where the notion of quasi-isomorphism barely makes sense, with a model category structure Quillen equivalent to that of unital algebras. To prove such a result, we use recent methods based on presentable categories. This allows us to describe the homotopy properties of unital algebras in a simpler and richer way. Moreover, we endow the various model ca…
We show that H-spaces with finitely generated cohomology, as an algebra or as an algebra over the Steenrod algebra, have homotopy exponents at all primes. This provides a positive answer to a question of Stanley.
This is my attempt to rediscover how Dennis realized that he had discovered/invented $L_\infty$-algebras a.k.a. strongly homotopy Lie algebras before my colleagues and I defined them.
We give a construction of the universal enveloping $A_\infty$ algebra of a given $L_\infty$ algebra, alternative to the already existing versions. As applications, we derive a higher homotopy algebras version of the classical Milnor-Moore theorem, proposing a new $A_\infty$ model for simply connected rational homotopy types, and uncovering a relationship between the higher order rational Whitehead products in homotopy groups and the Pontryagin-Massey products in the rational loop space homology algebra.
Lada introduced strong homotopy algebras to describe the structures on a deformation retract of an algebra in topological spaces. However, there is no satisfactory general definition of a morphism of strong homotopy (s.h.) algebras. Given a monad T on a simplicial category C, we instead show how s.h. T-algebras over C naturally form a Segal space. Given a distributive monad-comonad pair (T, S), the same is true for s.h. (T, S)-bialgebras over C; in particular this yields the homotopy theory of s.h. sheaves of s.h. rings. There are similar statements for quasi-monads and quasi-comonads. We also…
In this work we construct from ground up a homotopy theory of C*-algebras. This is achieved in parallel with the development of classical homotopy theory by first introducing an unstable model structure and second a stable model structure. The theory makes use of a full fledged import of homotopy theoretic techniques into the subject of C*-algebras. The spaces in C*-homotopy theory are certain hybrids of functors represented by C*-algebras and spaces studied in classical homotopy theory. In particular, we employ both the topological circle and the C*-algebra circle of complex-valued continuous…
This paper studies the homotopy theory of algebras and homotopy algebras over an operad. It provides an exhaustive description of their higher homotopical properties using the more general notion of morphisms called infinity-morphisms. The method consists in using the operadic calculus to endow the category of coalgebras over the Koszul dual cooperad or the bar construction with a new type of model category structure, Quillen equivalent to that of algebras. We provide an explicit homotopy equivalence for infinity-morphisms, which gives a simple description of the homotopy category, and we endo…
Since Quillen proved his famous equivalences of homotopy categories in 1969, much work has been done towards classifying the rational homotopy types of simply connected topological places. The majority of this work has focused on rational homotopy types with the same cohomology algebra. The models in this case were differential graded algebras and acted similarly to differential forms. These models were then used together with some deformation theory to describe a moduli space for all rational homotopy types with a given cohomology algebra. Indeed, this theory has been very well developed. How…
Over a monoidal model category, under some mild assumptions, we equip the categories of colored PROPs and their algebras with projective model category structures. A Boardman-Vogt style homotopy invariance result about algebras over cofibrant colored PROPs is proved. As an example, we define homotopy topological conformal field theories and observe that such structures are homotopy invariant.
We address the (pointed) homotopy of crossed module morphisms in modified categories of interest; which generalizes the groups and various algebraic structures. We prove that, the homotopy relation gives rise to an equivalence relation; furthermore a groupoid structure, without any restriction on neither domain nor co-domain of the crossed module morphism. Additionally, we consider the particular cases such as associative algebras, Leibniz algebras, Lie algebras and dialgebras of crossed modules of this generalized homotopy definition. Then as the main part of the paper, we prove that the func…
In this short note we show that the homotopy category of smooth compactifications of smooth algebraic varieties is equivalent to the homotopy category of smooth varieties over a field of characteristic zero. As an application we show that the functor sending a variety to the p-th step of the Hodge filtration of its complex cohomology is representable in the homotopy category of simplicial presheaves on smooth complex varieties. The main motivation are recent applications of homotopy theory to Deligne-Beilinson cohomology theories.
We define homotopy group actions in terms of families of $A_\infty$ algebras indexed by a manifold M. We give explicit formulae for the $A_\infty$ morphism induced by a path on the manifold and for the $A_\infty$ homotopy corresponding to a pair of homotopic paths. Finally, we compute examples for finite groups and finitely generated free nonabelian groups and determine that every homotopy group action by a finite group is homotopic to a strict group action.
We present a theory that produces several examples where the homotopy Lie algebra of a complex hyperplane arrangement is not finitely presented. We also present examples of hyperplane arrangements where the enveloping algebra of this Lie algebra has an irrational Hilbert series. This answers two questions of Denham and Suciu.
In this paper we apply homotopical localization to the framework of differential graded algebras over an operad. We get plus construction by performing nullification with respect to an universal acyclic algebra. This plus construction for Lie and Leibniz algebras up to homotopy yields two new homology theories for associative algebras. They are closely related to cyclic and Hochschild homologies. We also compute their first homology groups.
We show that the rational homotopy type of the complement of a toric arrangement is completely determined by two sets of combinatorial data. This is obtained by introducing a differential graded algebra over Q whose minimal model is equivalent to the Sullivan minimal model of the arrangement.
It is well known that the differential graded operad of A_infinity-algebras is a cofibrant replacement (a dg-resolution) of the operad of associative differential graded algebras without units. In this article we find a cofibrant replacement of the operad of associative differential graded algebras with units. Algebras over it are called homotopy unital A_infinity-algebras. We prove that the operad bimodule of A_infinity-morphisms is a cofibrant replacement of the operad bimodule of morphisms of dg-algebras without units. Similarly we show that the operad bimodule of homotopy unital A_infinity…
We show that a conjecture by Lawson holds, that is, the inclusion from the Chow variety $C_{p,d}(P^n)$ of all effective algebraic p-cycles of degree d in n-dimensional projective space to the space of effective algebraic p-cycles is 2d-connected. As a result, the homotopy and homology groups of $C_{p,d}(P^n)$ are calculated up to 2d. We also show an analogous statement for Chow variety $C_{p,d}(¶^n)$ over algebraically closed fields of arbitrary characteristic and compute their etale homotopy groups up to 2d.
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.
Let A be a graded-commutative, connected k-algebra generated in degree 1. The homotopy Lie algebra g_A is defined to be the Lie algebra of primitives of the Yoneda algebra, Ext_A(k,k). Under certain homological assumptions on A and its quadratic closure, we express g_A as a semi-direct product of the well-understood holonomy Lie algebra h_A with a certain h_A-module. This allows us to compute the homotopy Lie algebra associated to the cohomology ring of the complement of a complex hyperplane arrangement, provided some combinatorial assumptions are satisfied. As an application, we give examples…
Algebraic quantum field theory and prefactorization algebra are two mathematical approaches to quantum field theory. In this monograph, using a new coend definition of the Boardman-Vogt construction of a colored operad, we define homotopy algebraic quantum field theories and homotopy prefactorization algebras and investigate their homotopy coherent structures. Homotopy coherent diagrams, homotopy inverses, A-infinity-algebras, E-infinity-algebras, and E-infinity-modules arise naturally in this context. In particular, each homotopy algebraic quantum field theory has the structure of a homotopy …
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…
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 show that any closed model category of simplicial algebras over an algebraic theory is Quillen equivalent to a proper closed model category. By ``simplicial algebra'' we mean any category of algebras over a simplicial algebraic theory, which is allowed to be multi-sorted. The results have applications to the construction of localization model category structures.
In the present paper the cyclic homology functor from the category of $A_\infty$-algebras over any commutative unital ring $K$ to the category of graded $K$-modules is constructed. Further, it is showed that this functor sends homotopy equivalences of $A_\infty$-algebras into isomorphisms of graded modules. As a corollary, it is obtained that the cyclic homology of an $A_\infty$-algebra over any field is isomorphic to the cyclic homology of the $A_\infty$-algebra of homologies for the source $A_\infty$-algebra.
Let F denote the homotopy fiber of a map f:K-->L of 2-reduced simplicial sets. Using as input data the strongly homotopy coalgebra structure of the chain complexes of K and L, we construct a small, explicit chain algebra, the homology of which is isomorphic as a graded algebra to the homology of GF, the simplicial (Kan) loop group on F. To construct this model, we develop machinery for modeling the homotopy fiber of a morphism of chain Hopf algebras. Essential to our construction is a generalization of the operadic description of the category DCSH of chain coalgebras and of strongly homotopy c…
We address the homotopy theory of 2-crossed modules of commutative algebras. In particular, we define the concept of a 2-fold homotopy between a pair of 1-fold homotopies connecting 2-crossed module maps $\A \to \A'$. We also prove that if the domain 2-crossed module $\A$ is free up to order one (i.e. if the bottom algebra is a polynomial algebra) then we have a 2-groupoid of 2-crossed module maps $\A \to \A'$ and their homotopies and 2-fold homotopies.
We complete the details of a theory outlined by Kontsevich and Soibelman that associates to a semi-algebraic set a certain graded commutative differential algebra of "semi-algebraic differential forms" in a functorial way. This algebra encodes the real homotopy type of the semi-algebraic set in the spirit of the DeRham algebra of differential forms on a smooth manifold. Its development is needed for Kontsevich's proof of the formality of the little cubes operad.
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 examp…
