We introduce a new algebraic concept of an algebra which is "almost" commutative (more precisely "quasi-commutative differential graded algebra" or ADGQ, in French). We associate to any simplicial set X an ADGQ - called D(X) - and show how we can recover the homotopy type of the topological realization of X from this algebraic structure (assuming some finiteness conditions). The theory is sufficiently general to include also ringed spaces X. The construction is by itself interesting since it uses the difference calculus (instead of the differential calculus of Sullivan's theory) and a new type of tensor product, called "reduced tensor product". Although we dont have a minimal model yet, it is relatively easy to define the cup i-products and the Steenrod operations on the category of ADGQ's. Homotopy groups can be deduced from the "iterated Hochschild homology" of D(X). The determination of the homotopy type from this algebraic structure uses in an essential way recent results of M. Mandell.
The commutative differential graded algebra $A_{\mathrm{PL}}(X)$ of polynomial forms on a simplicial set $X$ is a crucial tool in rational homotopy theory. In this note, we construct an integral version $A^{\mathcal{I}}(X)$ of $A_{\mathrm{PL}}(X)$. Our approach uses diagrams of chain complexes indexed by the category of finite sets and injections $\mathcal{I}$ to model $E_{\infty}$ differential graded algebras by strictly commutative objects, called commutative $\mathcal{I}$-dgas. We define a functor $A^{\mathcal{I}}$ from simplicial sets to commutative $\mathcal{I}$-dgas and show that it is a…
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…
In recent years, Benson, Iyengar and Krause have developed a theory of stratification for compactly generated triangulated categories with an action of a graded commutative Noetherian ring. Stratification implies a classification of localizing and thick subcategories in terms of subsets of the prime ideal spectrum of the given ring. In this paper two stratification results are presented: one for the derived category of a commutative ring-spectrum with polynomial homotopy and another for the derived category of cochains on certain spaces. We also give the stratification of cochains on a space a…
Cubical cochains are equipped with an associative product, dual to the Serre diagonal, lifting the graded commutative structure in cohomology. In this work we introduce through explicit combinatorial methods an extension of this product to a full ${E_\infty}$-structure. As an application we prove that the Cartan-Serre map, which relates the cubical and simplicial singular cochains of spaces, is a quasi-isomorphism of ${E_\infty}$-algebras.
We use a vector field flow defined through a cubulation of a closed manifold to reconcile the partially defined commutative product on geometric cochains with the standard cup product on cubical cochains, which is fully defined and commutative only up to coherent homotopies. The interplay between intersection and cup product dates back to the beginnings of homology theory, but, to our knowledge, this result is the first to give an explicit cochain level comparison between these approaches.
We study a naturally occurring $E_{\infty}$-subalgebra of the full $E_2$-Hochschild cochain complex arising from coherent cochains. For group rings and certain category algebras, these cochains detect $H^*(B {\cal{C}})$, the simplicial cohomology of the classifying space of the underlying group or category, $\cal{C}$. In this setting the simplicial cup product of cochains on $B{\cal{C}}$ agrees with the Gerstenhaber product and Steenrod's cup-one product of cochains agrees with the pre-Lie product. We extend the idea of coherent cochains to algebras more general than category algebras and dub …
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 …
The present paper is a continuation of author's paper arXiv:1909.00940 [math.AT] devoted to the lemmas of Alexander and Sperner, but is independent from it. We begin by a step back from Alexander and Sperner to Lebesgue work on the invariance of the dimension. In contrast with almost everybody else, Lebesgue worked with cubes rather than with simplices. His methods were developed by Hurewicz and Lusternik-Schnirelmann and then forgotten. In the present paper these methods are recast in the language of cubical chains and cochains. After this, we present a new approach to Lebesgue and Lusternik-…
We give homotopy invariant definitions corresponding to three well known properties of complete intersections, for the ring, the module theory and the endomorphisms of the residue field, and we investigate them for the mod p cochains on a space, showing that suitable versions of the second and third are equivalent and that the first is stronger. We are particularly interested in classifying spaces of groups, and we give a number of examples. This paper follows on from arXiv:0906.4025 which considered the classical case of a commutative ring and arXiv:0906.3247 which considered the case of rati…
We show that the sum over planar trees formula of Kontsevich and Soibelman transfers C-infinity structures along a contraction. Applying this result to a cosimplicial commutative algebra A^* over a field of characteristic zero, we exhibit a canonical unital C-infinity structure on Tot(A^*), which is unital if A^* is; in particular, we obtain a canonical C-infinity structure on the cochain complex of a simplicial set.
The standard reduced bar complex B(A) of a differential graded algebra A inherits a natural commutative algebra structure if A is a commutative algebra. We address an extension of this construction in the context of E-infinity algebras. We prove that the bar complex of any E-infinity algebra can be equipped with the structure of an E-infinity algebra so that the bar construction defines a functor from E-infinity algebras to E-infinity algebras. We prove the homotopy uniqueness of such natural E-infinity structures on the bar construction. We apply our construction to cochain complexes of topol…
Banagl's method of intersection spaces allows to modify certain types of stratified pseudomanifolds near the singular set in such a way that the rational Betti numbers of the modified spaces satisfy generalized Poincaré duality in analogy with Goresky-MacPherson's intersection homology. In the case of one isolated singularity, we show that the duality isomorphism comes from a nondegenerate intersection pairing which depends on the choice of a chain representative of the fundamental class of the regular stratum. On the technical side, we use piecewise linear polynomial differential forms due to…
We establish equalities between cochain and chain type levels of maps by making use of exact functors which connect appropriate derived and coderived categories. Relevant conditions for levels of maps to be finite are extracted from the equalities which we call duality on the levels. Moreover, we give a lower bound of the cochain type level of the diagonal map on the classifying space of a Lie group by considering the ghostness of a shriek map which appears in derived string topology. A variant of Koszul duality for a differential graded algebra is also discussed.
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 use factorization homology and higher Hochschild (co)chains to study various problems in algebraic topology and homotopical algebra, notably brane topology, centralizers of $E_n$-algebras maps and iterated bar constructions. In particular, we obtain an $E_{n+1}$-algebra model on the shifted integral chains of the mapping space of the n-sphere into an orientable closed manifold $M$. We construct and use $E_\infty$-Poincaré duality to identify higher Hochschild cochains, modeled over the $n$-sphere, with the chains on the above mapping space, and then relate Hochschild cochains to the deforma…
We use the computational power of rational homotopy theory to provide an explicit cochain model for the loop product and the string bracket of a 1-connected closed manifold M. We prove that the loop homology of M is isomorphic to the Hochschild cohomology of the commutative graded algebra A_{PL}(M) with coefficients in itself. Some explicit computations of the loop product and the string bracket are given.
Recent developments have found unexpected connections between non-commutative probability theory and algebraic topology. In particular, Boolean cumulants functionals seem to be important for describing morphisms of homotopy operadic algebras. We provide new elementary examples which clearly resemble a connection between algebraic topology and non-commutative probability, based on spectral graph theory. These observations are important for bringing new ideas from non-commutative probability into TDA and stochastic topology, and in the opposite direction.
This is a slightly edited version of the transparencies for a seminar at UCL, May 7, 2003. It is intended to give a quick view of background, ideas, and some calculations, in the applicatioon of some non commutative methods to algebraic topology.
Luc Menichi showed that the BV algebras on $H^\bullet(LS^2;Z_2)[-2]$ coming from string topology and the one on $HH^\bullet(H^\bullet(S^2;Z_2),H^\bullet(S^2;Z_2))$ using Poincaré duality on $H^\bullet(S^2;Z_2)$ are not isomorphic. In this note we show how one can obtain the string topology BV algebra on Hochschild cohomology using a Poincaré duality structure with higher homotopies. This Poincaré duality (with higher homotopies) on cohomology is induced by a local Poincaré duality (with higher homotopies) on the cochain level.
We provide explicit quasi-isomorphisms between the following three algebraic structures associated to the unit interval: i) the commutative dg algebra of differential forms, ii) the non-commutative dg algebra of simplicial cochains and iii) the Whitney forms, equipped with a homotopy commutative and homotopy associative, i.e. $C_\infty$, algebra structure. Our main interest lies in a natural `discretization' $C_\infty$ quasi-isomorphism $φ$ from differential forms to Whitney forms. We establish a uniqueness result that implies that $φ$ coincides with the morphism from homotopy transfer, and ob…
We introduce the notion of a Galois extension of commutative S-algebras (E_infty ring spectra), often localized with respect to a fixed homology theory. There are numerous examples, including some involving Eilenberg-Mac Lane spectra of commutative rings, real and complex topological K-theory, Lubin-Tate spectra and cochain S-algebras. We establish the main theorem of Galois theory in this generality. Its proof involves the notions of separable and etale extensions of commutative S-algebras, and the Goerss-Hopkins-Miller theory for E_infty mapping spaces. We show that the global sphere spectru…
Let $X$ be a simply connected space and $\Bbb K$ be any field. The normalized singular cochains $N^*(X; {\Bbb K})$ admit a natural strongly homotopy commutative algebra structure, which induces a natural product on the Hochschild homology $HH_* N^*X$ of the space $X$. We prove that, endowed with this product, $HH_*N^*X$ is isomorphic to the cohomology algebra of the free loop space of $X$ with coefficients in $\Bbb K$. We also show how to construct a simpler Hochschild complex which allows direct computation.
The embedding Chains(R) into Cochains(R) as the compactly supported cochains might lead one to expect Chains(R) to carry a nonunital commutative Frobenius algebra structure, up to a degree shift and some homotopic weakening of the axioms. We prove that under reasonable "locality" conditions, a cofibrant resolution of the dioperad controlling nonunital shifted-Frobenius algebras does act on Chains(R), and in a homotopically-unique way. But we prove that this action does not extend to a homotopy Frobenius action at the level of properads or props. This gives an example of a geometrically meaning…
Using an analogy between the Brauer groups in algebra and the Whitehead groups in topology, we first use methods of algebraic K-theory to give a natural definition of Brauer spectra for commutative rings, such that their homotopy groups are given by the Brauer group, the Picard group and the group of units. Then, in the context of structured ring spectra, the same idea leads to two-fold non-connected deloopings of the spectra of units.
We introduce the notion of homotopy inner products for any cyclic quadratic Koszul operad $\mathcal O$, generalizing the construction already known for the associative operad. This is done by defining a colored operad $\widehat{\mathcal O}$, which describes modules over $\mathcal O$ with invariant inner products. We show that $\widehat{\mathcal O}$ satisfies Koszulness and identify algebras over a resolution of $\widehat{\mathcal O}$ in terms of derivations and module maps. As an application we construct a homotopy inner product over the commutative operad on the cochains of any Poincaré duali…
Among its many corollaries, Poincare duality implies that the de Rham cohomology of a compact oriented manifold is a shifted commutative Frobenius algebra --- a commutative Frobenius algebra in which the comultiplication has cohomological degree equal to the dimension of the manifold. We study the question of whether this structure lifts to a "homotopy" shifted commutative Frobenius algebra structure at the cochain level. To make this question nontrivial, we impose a mild locality-type condition that we call "quasilocality": strict locality at the cochain level is unreasonable, but it is reaso…
These notes illustrates the power of formulating ideas of commutative algebra in a homotopy invariant form. They can then be applied to derived categories of rings or ring spectra. These ideas are powerful in classical algebra, in representation theory of groups, in classical algebraic topology and elsewhere. The notes grew out of a series of lectures given during the `Interactions between Representation Theory, Algebraic Topology and Commutative Algebra' (IRTATCA) at the CRM (Barcelona) in Spring 2015.
This paper is a review of concepts from graded commutative algebra with specific attention given to length and multiplicity. The author's motivation for this paper comes from the study of equivariant cohomology in algebraic topology where the graded commutative algebra of the module is intimately connected to topological properties of the space (as shown by Quillen). Results (and their proofs) which are often left as exercises, or considered 'folklore' in the commutative algebra community are included in this paper, as are references to relevant applications in topology. As such, this paper is…
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…
We survey the topology which led to the original bar and cobar constructions, for both associative algebras and coalgebras and for Lie algebras and commutative coalgebras. These constructions are often viewed as part of the larger theory of Koszul duality of operads, so this survey is meant to offer an historical perspective on the most prominent cases of that theory. We also explain recent work which shows that Hopf/linking invariants for homotopy are at the heart of the duality between commutative algebras and Lie coalgebras.
For an arbitrary simplicial complex K, Davis and Januszkiewicz have defined a family of homotopy equivalent CW-complexes whose integral cohomology rings are isomorphic to the Stanley-Reisner algebra of K. Subsequently, Buchstaber and Panov gave an alternative construction (here called c(K)), which they showed to be homotopy equivalent to Davis and Januszkiewicz's examples. It is therefore natural to investigate the extent to which the homotopy type of a space is determined by having such a cohomology ring. We begin this study here, in the context of model category theory. In particular, we ext…
Let X be a pseudomanifold. In this text, we use a simplicial blow-up to define a cochain complex whose cohomology with coefficients in a field, is isomorphic to the intersection cohomology of X, introduced by M. Goresky and R. MacPherson. We do it simplicially in the setting of a filtered version of face sets, also called simplicial sets without degeneracies, in the sense of C.P. Rourke and B.J. Sanderson. We define perverse local systems over filtered face sets and intersection cohomology with coefficients in a perverse local system. In particular, as announced above when X is a pseudomanifol…
Given a $C_\infty$ coalgebra $C_*$, a strict dg Hopf algebra $H_*$, and a twisting cochain $τ:C_* \rightarrow H_*$ such that $Im(τ) \subset Prim(H_*)$, we describe a procedure for obtaining an $A_\infty$ coalgebra on $C_* \otimes H_*$. This is an extension of Brown's work on twisted tensor products. We apply this procedure to obtain an $A_\infty$ coalgebra model of the chains on the free loop space $LM$ based on the $C_\infty$ coalgebra structure of $H_*(M)$ induced by the diagonal map $M \rightarrow M \times M$ and the Hopf algebra model of the based loop space given by $T(H_*(M)[-1])$. When …
We construct a functor from the smooth 4-dimensional manifolds to the hyper-algebraic number fields, i.e. fields with non-commutative multiplication. It is proved that that the simply connected 4-manifolds correspond to the abelian extensions. We recover the Rokhlin and Donaldson's Theorems from the Galois theory of the non-commutative fields.
In this paper we take some classical ideas from commutative algebra, mostly ideas involving duality, and apply them in algebraic topology. To accomplish this we interpret properties of ordinary commutative rings in such a way that they can be extended to the more general rings that come up in homotopy theory. Amongst the rings we work with are the differential graded ring of cochains on a space, the differential graded ring of chains on the loop space, and various ring spectra, e.g., the Spanier-Whitehead duals of finite spectra or chromatic localizations of the sphere spectrum. Maybe the most…
In this paper, I give a generalized analogue of the string topology results of Chas and Sullivan, and of Cohen and Jones. For a finite simplicial complex $X$ and $k \geq 1$, I construct a spectrum $Maps(S^k, X)^{S(X)}$, and show that the corresponding chain complex is naturally homotopy equivalent to an algebra over the $(k+1)$-dimensional unframed little disk operad $\mathcal{C}_{k+1}$. I also prove Kontsevich's conjecture that the Quillen cohomology of a based $\mathcal{C}_k$-algebra (in the category of chain complexes) is equivalent to a shift of its Hochschild cohomology, as well as prove …
Let H be a differential graded Hopf algebra over a field k. This paper gives an explicit construction of a triple cochain complex that defines the Hochschild-Cartier cohomology of H. A certain truncation of this complex is the appropriate setting for deforming H as an H(q)-structure. The direct limit of all such truncations is the appropriate setting for deforming H as a strongly homotopy associative structure. Sign complications are systematically controlled. The connection between rational perturbation theory and the deformation theory of certain free commutative differential graded algebras…
This text was written and used for a MAP Summer School at the University of Genova, August 28 to September 2, 2006. Available since then on the web site of the second author, it has been used and referenced by several colleagues working in Commutative Algebra and Algebraic Topology. To make safer such references, it was suggested to place it on the Arxiv repository. It is a relatively detailed exposition of the use of the Basic Perturbation Lemma to make constructive Homological Algebra (standard Homological Algebra is not constructive) and how this technology can be used in Commutative Algebr…
For equivariant stable homotopy theory, equivariant KK-theory and equivariant derived categories, we show how restriction to a subgroup of finite index yields a finite commutative separable extension, analogous to finite étale extensions in algebraic geometry.
This is an expository account of completion and local cohomology in brave new commutative algebra, especially as it applies to completion theorems and their duals in equivariant topology. The first part is fairly direct, but the second considers Morita theory and Gorenstein ring spectra. This draws on work of the author with Benson, Dwyer, Iyengar and May, amongst others.
Equipping a non-equivariant topological $E_\infty$-operad with the trivial $G$-action gives an operad in $G$-spaces. For a $G$-spectrum, being an algebra over this operad does not provide any multiplicative norm maps on homotopy groups. Algebras over this operad are called naïve-commutative ring $G$-spectra. In this paper we take $G=SO(2)$ and we show that commutative algebras in the algebraic model for rational $SO(2)$-spectra model rational naïve-commutative ring $SO(2)$-spectra. In particular, this applies to show that the $SO(2)$-equivariant cohomology associated to an elliptic curve $C$ f…
We adopt the viewpoint that topological Andé-Quillen theory for commutative $S$-algebras should provide usable (co)homology theories for doing calculations in the sense traditional within Algebraic Topology. Our main emphasis is on homotopical properties of universal derivations, especially their behaviour in multiplicative homology theories. There are algebraic derivation properties, but also deeper properties arising from the homotopical structure of the free algebra functor $\mathbb{P}_R$ and its relationship with extended powers of spectra. In the connective case in ordinary $\bmod{\,p}$ h…
We outline the main features of the definitions and applications of crossed complexes and cubical $ω$-groupoids with connections. These give forms of higher homotopy groupoids, and new views of basic algebraic topology and the cohomology of groups, with the ability to obtain some non commutative results and compute some homotopy types.
Motivated by the construction of Steenrod cup-$i$ products in the singular cochain algebra of a space and in the algebra of non-commutative differential forms, we define a category of binomial cup-one differential graded algebras over the integers and over prime fields of positive characteristic. The Steenrod and Hirsch identities bind the cup-product, the cup-one product, and the differential in a package that we further enhance with a binomial ring structure arising from a ring of integer-valued rational polynomials. This structure allows us to define the free binomial cup-one differential g…
Let $M$ be a closed, oriented manifold of dimension $d$. Let $LM$ be the space of smooth loops in $M$. Chas and Sullivan recently defined a product on the homology $H_*(LM)$ of degree $-d$. They then investigated other structure that this product induces, including a Batalin -Vilkovisky structure, and a Lie algebra structure on the $S^1$ equivariant homology $H_*^{S^1}(LM)$. These algebraic structures, as well as others, came under the general heading of the "string topology" of $M$. In this paper we will describe a realization of the Chas - Sullivan loop product in terms of a ring spectrum st…
