Batalin-Vilkovisky algebras and cyclic cohomology of Hopf algebras (Q1770800)

One of the central ideas of homotopy theory is that additional algebraic structure on the (co)homology or homotopy of a space may be helpful in computing this (co)homology or homotopy. From this point of view, it is an interesting remark that some structures of a Gerstenhaber bracket may be derived from a Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) structure. Here a (graded) Gerstenhaber structure on a graded vector space is a graded product and a bracket of degree \(-1\) which satisfy a Leibniz identity. The main example is the Gerstenhaber structure on the Hochschild cohomology of an associative algebra, found by \textit{M. Gerstenhaber} [Ann. Math. (2) 78, 267--288 (1963; Zbl 0131.27302)]. On the other hand, a BV structure on a graded vector space is a graded product and a degree \(-1\) operator \(B\) such that \(B^2=0\) and which satisfies a rather complicated identity. Setting \[ \{a,b\}:=(-1)^{| a| }(B(ab)-B(a)b-(-1)^{| a| }aB(b)), \] one recovers from a BV structure a Gerstenhaber structure. The article under review shows that the Adams cobar construction \(\Omega{\mathcal H}\) on a Hopf algebra \({\mathcal H}\) carries a BV structure on its cohomology which is derived from the cocyclic module structure of \textit{A. Connes} and \textit{H. Moscovici} [Commun. Math. Phys. 198, 199--246 (1998; Zbl 0940.58005)] and which gives back the classical Gerstenhaber structure. The proof relies on the operadic description of the involved structures, and the author shows in particular that for a cyclic operad \(O\) with multiplication, the structure of a cosimplicial module extends to a structure of a cocyclic module such that Connes boundary operator on the associated cochain complex induces a BV structure. Another context where similar constructions are possible is the theory of symmetric algebras, i.e., an algebra \(A\) equipped with an isomorphism of \(A\)-bimodules \(A\cong A^*\) of \(A\) with its linear dual. As a corollary, the author obtains a BV structure on the Hochschild cohomology of \(A\) (with coefficients in \(A\)), giving back a result of Tradler [unpublished]. In related work, Kaufmann, Tradler-Zeinalian [\textit{T. Tradler} and \textit{M. Zeinalian}, J. Pure Appl. Algebra 204, 280--299 (2006; Zbl 1147.16012)], Costello and Kontsevich-Soibelman prove that the BV algebra structure on \(HH^{*}(A,A)\) comes from the action of various operads or PROPs on the Hochschild cochain complex \(\mathcal{C}^{*}(A,A)\): the so-called cyclic Deligne conjecture.