Free loop space homology of highly connected manifolds (Q1714462)

The main theme of the paper under review stems from string topology. To explain the results more precisely: Given an oriented, closed \(d\)-dimensional manifold \(M\), the free loop space \(LM\) is defined to be the continuous mapping space \[ LM=\mathrm{Map}\,(\mathbb{S}^{1},M) \] with the circle symmetry of rotating the domain. According to the results by \textit{M. Chas} and \textit{D. Sullivan} [``String topology'', Preprint, \url{ arXiv:math/9911159}], there exist two natural operations on the homology of \(LM\): the loop product \(\bullet\) and the loop bracket \(\{,\}\); moreover, the circle action on \(LM\) induces a Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) operator \(\Delta\) on \(H_{\ast}(LM)\). An amazing result in string topology shows that the loop product \(\bullet\) with the loop bracket \(\{,\}\) makes the \(d\)-shifted loop homology \(H_{\ast+d}(LM)\) into a Gerstenhaber algebra which can be extended to be a BV-algebra with respect to the operator \(\Delta\). For any \(n\geq2\), the authors extensively study the string topology of a closed, oriented and \((n-1)\)-connected manifold \(M^{d}\) satisfying \(d\leq3n-2\) and \(\mathrm{dim}\,H^{\ast}(M)>4\). In this case, \(M\) is formal and coformal; consequently, its loop cohomology \(H^{\ast}(M)\) becomes a Koszul algebra in the sense of \textit{S. B. Priddy} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 152, 39--60 (1970; Zbl 0261.18016)]. Applying the main results of [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 366, No. 9, 4551--4569 (2014; Zbl 1301.55006)] by the first author of this paper, the authors obtained the following primary objects: \begin{itemize} \item [(i)] They identify the loop product and the loop bracket with coefficients in \(k\) via the isomorphism between the loop homology \(H_{\ast+d}(LM;k)\) and the Hochschild cohomology \(HH^{\ast}(C_{\ast}(\Omega M),C_{\ast}(\Omega M);k)\) as Gerstenhaber algebras. Here \(\Omega M\) is the based loop space of \(M\). \item [(ii)] They identify the BV-operator \(\Delta\) on \(H_{\ast+d}(LM;k)\) via the isomorphism from \(H_{\ast+d}(LM;k)\) to \(HH^{\ast}(C^{\ast}(\Omega M),C^{\ast}(\Omega M);k)\). \item [(iii)] They prove the exponential growth for the sequence of the Betti numbers of the free loop space \(LM\). \end{itemize}