Questions tagged [operads]

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35 votes
2 answers
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Why should have Peter May worked with CGWH instead of CGH in "The Geometry of Iterated Loop Space"?

This is a follow-up to Dan Ramras' answer of this question. The following correction can be found in the errata to The Geometry of Iterated Loop space (Page 484 here). The weak Hausdorff rather ...
archipelago's user avatar
  • 2,954
33 votes
7 answers
5k views

Why are operads useful?

The question is not about where operads are used, I know that. It is about what makes them useful. For example, van Kampen diagrams are useful in combinatorial group theory because these are planar ...
user avatar
32 votes
5 answers
2k views

What are natural questions to ask about an operad?

I just discovered that something I've been working with has the structure of an operad. So I'm wondering what natural basic questions does one ask about operads? For example, if I knew I had the ...
Connie's user avatar
  • 323
31 votes
3 answers
4k views

Algebras over the little disks operad

Hello, The so-called "recognition principle" of Boardman-Vogt and May leaves me unsatisfied. My problem is the following: The "recognition principle" says that every "group-like" algebra over the ...
Oblomov's user avatar
  • 2,501
30 votes
7 answers
5k views

Shuffle Hopf algebra: how to prove its properties in a slick way?

Let $k$ be a commutative ring with $1$, and let $V$ be a $k$-module. Let $TV$ be the $k$-module $\bigoplus\limits_{n\in\mathbb N}V^{\otimes n}$, where all tensor products are over $k$. We define a $k$...
darij grinberg's user avatar
25 votes
1 answer
5k views

What's up with Wick's theorem?

Sorry about the dumb title. I'd like to understand Wick's theorem. More specifically, I have seen it pop up in several different contexts and I am really puzzled by the different statements of it ...
Dan Petersen's user avatar
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23 votes
3 answers
1k views

Is it possible to construct an action of an $E_\infty$ operad on $BU$ that respects filtration by $BU(n)$?

It is well known that $BU$ is an infinite loop space, and as such it has an action of an $E_\infty$ operad. An explicit construction of such an action is given, for example, in an answer to this MO ...
Gregory Arone's user avatar
22 votes
1 answer
1k views

Little disks operad and $Gal (\bar {Q}/Q)$

My question is simple: How do the little disks operad and $Gal (\bar {Q}/Q)$ relate? I realize that a huge amount of heavy-machinery can be brought into an answer to this, but I'm struggling with ...
Romeo's user avatar
  • 2,714
21 votes
3 answers
2k views

Relation between monads, operads and algebraic theories

I've begun to interest in algebraic theories and their categorical models: in particular monads, generalized multicategories and operads, lawvere theories and their generalization. Is there any ...
Giorgio Mossa's user avatar
21 votes
5 answers
3k views

Good reference for studying operads?

Can you, please, recommend a good text about algebraic operads? I know the main one, namely, Loday, Vallette "Algebraic operads". But it is very big and there is no way you can read it fast. Also ...
21 votes
1 answer
2k views

On Tamarkin's proof of Etingof-Kazhdan quantization of Lie bialgebra

This question is motivated by the desire to understand better the interplay between Drinfeld associators, algebraic structures up to homotopy and related results. Recall that a Lie bialgebra is a Lie ...
Adrien's user avatar
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21 votes
2 answers
5k views

Kontsevich's conjectures on the Grothendieck-Teichmüller group?

Reading Kontsevich's "Operads and Motives in Deformation Quantization", I was wondering about the state of the many conjectures concerning the Grothendieck-Teichmüller group in chapter 4. (Also, where ...
Thomas Riepe's user avatar
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20 votes
1 answer
1k views

Are G_infinity algebras B_infinity? Vice versa?

What is the relationship between $G_\infty$ (homotopy Gerstenhaber) and $B_\infty$ algebras? In Getzler & Jones "Operads, homotopy algebra, and iterated integrals for double loop spaces" (a paper ...
Ian Shipman's user avatar
  • 1,008
19 votes
4 answers
1k views

Are there prominent examples of operads in schemes?

There is an abundance of examples of operads in topological spaces, chain complexes, and simplicial sets. However, there are very few (if any) examples of operads in algebraic geometric objects, even ...
Patrick Elliott's user avatar
19 votes
2 answers
955 views

Does Koszul duality between $Comm$ and $Lie$ imply the power series identity $\exp(\ln(1-z))-1 = -z$?

To a symmetric sequence $V_\bullet$ of vector spaces, associate the generating function $F_V(z) = \sum_n \frac{\dim(V_n)}{n!} z^n$. Then $$F_{Comm_\ast}(z) = \exp(z)-1 \qquad F_{Lie}(z) = \ln(1-z)$$ ...
Tim Campion's user avatar
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18 votes
1 answer
965 views

Higher homotopy algebraic structure on the homology of an operad

Given a DGA $A$, then by standard techniques such as homological perturbation theory, the ring structure on the homology $H(A)$ extends to a minimal $A_\infty$-algebra structure such that $H(A)$ is ...
Jeffrey Giansiracusa's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
568 views

Positivity of coefficients of the inverse of a certain power series

Consider the unique formal power series $g(z)$ with $g(0)=0$ and $g'(0)=1$ satisfying the equation $$ g(z)-g(z)^8+g(z)^{15}=z, $$ that is the inverse of $$ z-z^8+z^{15} $$ in the group of formal ...
Vladimir Dotsenko's user avatar
17 votes
2 answers
680 views

Homotopy theories of operads

I know of three homotopy theories of colored operads. The (derived) localization category of Berger-Moerdijk's model structure on the category of strict simplicial (or topological) operads, with weak ...
Dmitry Vaintrob's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
2k views

Are Lurie's operads special SMCs?

In Higher Operads, Higher Categories, Leinster nicely characterizes operads among monoidal categories (as PROs). Roughly speaking, a monoidal category comes from an operad if its set of objects is ...
David Spivak's user avatar
  • 8,559
16 votes
4 answers
2k views

Deligne's conjecture (the little discs operad one)

Deligne's conjecture states that the Hochschild cochain complex of an A-infinity algebra is an algebra over the operad of chains on the topological little discs operad. Of course the conjecture has ...
Kevin H. Lin's user avatar
  • 20.8k
16 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why are operads sometimes better than algebraic theories?

Question 1: Are there any contexts in which replacing the category of (non-symmetric or symmetric) operads (in some monoidal category or symmetric monoidal category, respectively) with the category of ...
Arshak Aivazian's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
662 views

What is this operad-like structure called?

I'd like to know what's the name (if any) of the following categorical structure, and also references where it has been considered. Given a category $C$, let $O=\{O(n)\}_{n\geq 0}$ be a sequence of ...
Fernando Muro's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
903 views

Free Loop-Space Recognition Principle

It is well-known that one can detect based loopspaces using the machinery of operads. Namely, given a group-like space $X$ with an action of $\mathbb{E}_n$-operad, then it is homotopy equivalent as an ...
Nerses Aramian's user avatar
15 votes
3 answers
814 views

Is the Amitsur-Levitzki identity essentially unique?

Let us consider the matrix algebra. $Mat_n(\mathbb{C})$. The Amitsur-Levitzki identity states that for any matrices $X_1, X_2, ..., X_{2n} \in Mat_n(\mathbb{C})$ the sum $\Sigma_{\sigma \in S_{2n}} ...
Lev Soukhanov's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
906 views

What homotopy classes can attaching an $E_n$-cell kill?

Let $A$ be a connected $E_{n+1}$-ring spectrum and let $\alpha\in\pi_k(A)$. I am having trouble showing that attaching an $E_n$-cell along $\alpha$ will necessarily not kill an element $\beta\in\pi_k(...
Jonathan Beardsley's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
687 views

Homotopy transfer in the opposite direction

Let $X\rightleftarrows Y\circlearrowleft$ be a strong deformation retraction of chain complexes (a.k.a. contraction), i.e. $X\rightarrow Y\rightarrow X$ is the identity, $Y\rightarrow Y$ is a homotopy ...
Fernando Muro's user avatar
15 votes
0 answers
521 views

Is this an $E_\infty$-algebra?

I have a particular kind of algebraic structure that's come up in my work. It's basically a chain complex equipped with a multiplication which is commutative and associative up to homotopy in a ...
Dan Petersen's user avatar
  • 39.3k
14 votes
0 answers
784 views

Splitting of homomorphism from cactus group to permutation group

We all learned in kindergarten that the category of finite-dimensional (type I, say) $U_q(\mathfrak{g})$-modules is braided monoidal for $\mathfrak{g}$ a complex semisimple Lie algebra. This gives an ...
MTS's user avatar
  • 8,409
13 votes
2 answers
1k views

Correspondence between operads and $\infty$-operads with one object

Given a simplicial operad one can form its category of operators. This is a simplicial category with a functor to the category of finite pointed sets which is a bijection on objects and whose hom-...
Justin Noel's user avatar
  • 1,738
13 votes
2 answers
1k views

Model structure for cooperads and for coalgebras

I am studying the homotopy theory of (algebraic) operads and I came up with several questions I am unable to answer to. I would like to stress that I don't have applications in mind, I just would like ...
Mauro Porta's user avatar
13 votes
2 answers
516 views

Introducing division strategically in operads to accommodate formulas like the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff formula

I am not as familiar with operad terminology as I'd like to be, so I might be missing some well-known term in the area. If so, I'd appreciate any pointers to the correct terms. Consider the following ...
Vipul Naik's user avatar
  • 7,240
13 votes
0 answers
550 views

When does an $E_\infty$ algebra come from a commutative differential graded algebra?

Suppose that $K$ is an $E_\infty$-algebra on a space $X$ (more generally, any ringed topos; also, feel free to assume that $X$ is a point). That is, $K$ is a cochain complex of sheaves on $X$, endowed ...
Piotr Achinger's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
467 views

Is the operadic nerve functor an equivalence of ∞-categories?

It is now known that the $\infty$-category of $\infty$-operads as defined by Lurie is equivalent to the underlying $\infty$-category of the model category of simplicial operads, see http://arxiv.org/...
Yonatan Harpaz's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
614 views

GL(V)-representation theory for a Lie bracket kernel

Let $V$ be a vector space over a field of characteristic $0$, and let $L_k(V)$ be the degree $k$ part of the free Lie algebra over $V$. There is an exact sequence $$0\to D_n(V)\to L_1(V)\otimes L_{n+1}...
Jim Conant's user avatar
  • 4,838
12 votes
1 answer
1k views

koszul duality and algebras over operads

Given a pair of Koszul dual algebras, say $S^*(V)$ and $\bigwedge^*(V^*)$ for some vector space $V$, one obtains a triangulated equivalence between their bounded derived categories of finitely-...
Harold Williams's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
874 views

What are types of coalgebras that are more naturally described by cooperads?

Some background. Let $\mathsf{C}$ be a symmetric monoidal category. An object $X \in \mathsf{C}$ has two operads "naturally" (the two constructions aren't functorial) associated to it: the operad of ...
Najib Idrissi's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
750 views

Tensor product of dendroidal sets: counter-examples

For any smal category $A$, I shall write $\widehat A$ for the category $[A^{\text op}, \mathbf{Set}]$ of presheaves on $A$, and $y_A\colon A \to \widehat A$ for the Yoneda embedding relative to $A$. ...
Andrea Gagna's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
584 views

Vertex algebras and factorization algebras

It is often said that vertex algebras are a special case of factorization algebras. In particular, in their book "FAs in QFT" Costello/Gwilliam construct a functor from a certain class of 2d "...
Bipolar Minds's user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
927 views

Compatibility of the KZ connection with operadic composition

In what sense is the Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov connection compatible with the operadic composition in the little discs operad and/or the operad of $\overline{M}_{0,n}$'s? Here are (some) details, ...
Pavol S.'s user avatar
  • 407
12 votes
1 answer
723 views

Condition on a Hopf operad for tensor product in the base category to be a (categorical) coproduct for algebras

A Hopf operad will be an operad endowed with a coproduct $P(n) \longrightarrow P(n) \otimes P(n)$ which is compatible in the obvious sens with operad laws (no more structure is assumed a priori. "Hopf"...
Jacques Darné's user avatar
12 votes
0 answers
330 views

Does the $(\mathbb Z/2)$-graded isomorphism $E_n \cong E_{n+2}$ have any nice properties?

This question assumes everything is dg. Let's decide to work over the "field" $\mathbb Q[\mu,\mu^{-1}]$ where $\mu$ has homological degree $+2$. Then chain complexes are just $\mathbb Z/2$-graded. ...
Theo Johnson-Freyd's user avatar
11 votes
2 answers
548 views

Are $E_n$-operads not formal in characteristic not equal to zero?

This is a short question: Is it just unproven folklore (yet), or is it definitively known that $E_n$-operads are not formal, if the characteristic of the underlying field is not equal to zero?
Mark.Neuhaus's user avatar
  • 2,014
11 votes
1 answer
824 views

$k$-Disk algebras versus $E_k$ algebras

Background: The little $k$-cubes operad is the $(\infty,1)$-operad defined by embedding disjoint unions of $k$-dimensional open cubes rectilinearly into one another, that is using maps $(0,1)^k\...
Espen Nielsen's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
339 views

Conceptual (operadic?) reason for the generalized EHP fiber sequence $J_{q-1}(S^{2n}) \to J S^{2n} \to JS^{2nq}$?

Let $q$ be a prime and $q=p^r$ a power. Then there is a $p$-local fiber sequence from the $q-1$st stage of the James construction on $S^{2n}$, to $J(S^{2n}) = \Omega \Sigma S^{2n}$, to $J(S^{2nq}) = \...
Tim Campion's user avatar
  • 61.5k
11 votes
1 answer
388 views

Non-$\Sigma$ $E_n$ algebras?

Any symmetric operad can be considered as an non-$\Sigma$ operad by throwing away permutations. Does anyone know what sort of structure one gets for algebras over $C_n$ the little n-cubes operad, or ...
Justin Young's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

Do I need to know what an infinity-Gerstenhaber algebra is, and if so, what is it?

I am in the following situation. I have two (rather explicit and specific) dg commutative algebras $R,S$ over a field of characteristic $0$. In fact, $S$ is an $R$-algebra, in that I have a map $R \...
Theo Johnson-Freyd's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

PBW theorem over a Q-algebra, without freeness or flatness

Let $k$ be a commutative ring with $1$. Let $L$ be a $k$-Lie algebra, which is not necessarily free as a $k$-module. Let $S\left(L\right)$ denote the symmetric algebra of $L$ (over $k$), constructed ...
darij grinberg's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
508 views

On the coalgebraic homotopy transfer theorem

Let $A$ be a dg algebra, say over a field. The Homotopy Transfer Theorem says that $H(A)$ can noncanonically be given the structure of $A_\infty$-algebra, extending the induced multiplication on $H(A)$...
Dan Petersen's user avatar
  • 39.3k
11 votes
1 answer
588 views

Dioperads vs polycategories

As defined by Gan, a dioperad consists of sets of operations $P(n,m)$ with "$n$ inputs and $m$ outputs", which can be composed by joining one output of one operation to one input of another, giving ...
Mike Shulman's user avatar
  • 65.1k
11 votes
1 answer
265 views

Infinity-homotopies

Koszul duality for operads allows for straightforward generalizations of $A$-infinity algebras and $A$-infinity morphisms for the so called Koszul operads $\mathcal{O}$, among which we find the ...
Fernando Muro's user avatar

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