Cohomology with coefficients for operadic coalgebras (Q1043859): Difference between revisions

The notion of operad codifies various definitions of commutativity and/or associativity of familiar algebraic structures. Unlike those structures, it goes beyond the customary nullary and binary operations and works with the totality of \(n\)-ary operations for all non-negative integers \(n\). Similar to those structures, operads are supposed to obey certain axioms. Fundamental in this definition is the ability to compose operations of different arities. In fact there are several ways of composing two operations -- the inputs for the first of the two operations can be chosen in different ways to produce one output, which is then used with the remaining inputs by the second operation. A reader not familiar with operads may benefit from looking at the example of a set \(X\) together with all functions from \(X^{n} \to X\) for all non-negative \(n\). The familiar algebraic structures like associative algebras, Lie algebras, commutative algebras, etc., can then be viewed as ``algebras'' over the suitable operads. An immediate question arises if there is a cohomology theory for operadic algebras, and if the known cohomology theories for the classes of algebras mentioned above can be recovered as special cases of the cohomology theory for operadic algebras. The answer is yes. In fact, one can even define a cohomology theory with coefficients. This was first done by \textit{T.~Fox} and \textit{M.~Markl}. Later, \textit{D.~Balavoine} gave an explicit construction of the coboundary operator for an algebra over a quadratic operad. In the present paper the authors, following Balavoine, construct a cohomology theory with coefficients for a \textit{coalgebra} over a quadratic operad. The coefficients are called corepresentations, with left comodules over a coassociative coalgebra as a prototype. In fact, the authors define the notion of an enveloping coalgebra and establish a categorical equivalence between finite-dimensional comodules and finite-dimensional corepresentations. This is followed by an explicit construction of a cochain complex for an operadic coalgebra with coefficients in a corepresentation. The second cohomology group is interpreted as equivalence classes of certain extensions. Finally, the authors show that the dual of their cochain complex is canonically isomorphic to the Balavoine complex built on the dual objects.