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Ryan Budney
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Operad terminology - Operads with and without O(0).

In the Markl, Schneider and Stasheff text, topological operads are an indexed collection of spaces $O(n)$ for $n \in \{1,2,3,\cdots\}$ satisfying some axioms. In May's text, the index set is allowed to include zero.

  1. Is there a standard terminology for operads with and without $O(0)$?

  2. Is there standard terminology for topological operads where $O(0)$ is a point, vs. $O(0)$ not being a point?

Although it's less important I'd be curious if people have examples where these distinctions are interesting.

Since any operad acts on its $O(0)$ part perhaps the $O(0)$ part should be called something like its "base"? But then "baseless operad" would sound kind of pejorative.

Ryan Budney
  • 44.4k
  • 2
  • 139
  • 245