Relative left properness of colored operads (Q341762)

Given a span \(A\leftarrow B\rightarrow C\) in a model category, its pushout is a homotopy pushout if all three objects are cofibrants and one of the two maps is a cofibration. If the model category is left proper, it is enough to assume that one of the maps is a cofibrations. It is therefore very useful to know that a model category is left proper since it often makes the calculations of homotopy pushouts easier. In the paper under review, the authors study the left properness of model structures on categories of colored operads. In the last section they give an explicit example due to Bill Dwyer that shows that the model structure on monochromatic operads in simplicial sets is not left proper. However, the main result of the paper shows that the model structure on colored operads enriched in a reasonable model category are left proper relative to \(\Sigma\)-cofibrant operads. This means that the subcategory of \(\Sigma\)-cofibrant operads behaves similarly to a left proper model category in the sense that homotopy pushouts of spans can be computed by replacing one of the arrows by a cofibration. Being \(\Sigma\)-cofibrant is a much milder condition than being cofibrant. This condition is also satisfied by many operads of interests (for instance the little disks operads are \(\Sigma\)-cofibrant) therefore this result is likely to have interesting applications to the study of homotopy pushouts in operads.