Bruno Vallette - Böcker

Covering an exceptional range of topics, this text provides a unique overview of the Maurer-Cartan methods in algebra, geometry, topology, and mathematical physics. It offers a new conceptual treatment of the twisting procedure, guiding the reader through various versions with the help of plentiful motivating examples for graduate students as well as researchers. Topics covered include a novel approach to the twisting procedure for operads leading to Kontsevich graph homology and a description of the twisting procedure for (homotopy) associative algebras or (homotopy) Lie algebras using the biggest deformation gauge group ever considered. The book concludes with concise surveys of recent applications in areas including higher category theory and deformation theory.

This book presents the notes originating from five series of lectures given at the CRM Barcelona in 21-25 June, 2021, during the “Higher homotopical structures” programme.Since their introduction 60 years ago, the notions of infinity algebras (Stasheff, Sugawara), higher categories (Boardman-Vogt), operads (May), and model categories (Quillen) have given rise to powerful new tools which made possible the resolution of open problems and prompted revolutions in many domains like algebraic topology (rational homotopy theory, faithful algebraic invariants of the homotopy type of spaces), deformation theory (formality theorems, formal moduli problems), and mathematical physics (quantization of Poisson manifolds, quantum field theories), to name but a few. This theory of higher structures using operadic calculus is currently under rapid development. The aim of this book is to provide the community with an accessible state-of-the-art, while at the same time giving interested researchers and advanced students a brief overview on the subject.

In many areas of mathematics some “higher operations” are arising. These havebecome so important that several research projects refer to such expressions. Higher operationsform new types of algebras. The key to understanding and comparing them, to creating invariants of their action is operad theory. This is a point of view that is 40 years old in algebraic topology, but the new trend is its appearance in several other areas, such as algebraic geometry, mathematical physics, differential geometry, and combinatorics. The present volume is the first comprehensive and systematic approach to algebraic operads. An operad is an algebraic device that serves to study all kinds of algebras (associative, commutative, Lie, Poisson, A-infinity, etc.) from a conceptual point of view. The book presents this topic with an emphasis on Koszul duality theory. After a modern treatment of Koszul duality for associative algebras, the theory is extended to operads. Applications to homotopy algebra are given, for instance the Homotopy Transfer Theorem. Although the necessary notions of algebra are recalled, readers are expected to be familiar with elementary homological algebra. Each chapter ends with a helpful summary and exercises. A full chapter is devoted to examples, and numerous figures are included. After a low-level chapter on Algebra, accessible to (advanced) undergraduate students, the level increases gradually through the book. However, the authors have done their best to make it suitable for graduate students: three appendices review the basic results needed in order to understand the various chapters. Since higher algebra is becoming essential in several research areas like deformation theory, algebraic geometry, representation theory, differential geometry, algebraic combinatorics, and mathematical physics, the book can also be used as a reference work by researchers.