Actads (Q2169098)

Having been coined by \textit{J. P. May} [The geometry of iterated loop spaces. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer-Verlag (1972; Zbl 0244.55009)], operads are a central concept of modern algebraic topology. \textit{J. C. Baez} and \textit{J. Dolan} [Adv. Math. 135, No. 2, 145--206 (1998; Zbl 0909.18006)] introduced the \(+\)-construction to pass from monoids to plain operads and, via iteration, to opetopes. Opetopes do not explain how symmetric operads arise from monoids. While the \(+\)-construction can be applied to symmetric operads, there is an additional possibility of introducing permutations on each higher level by permuting variables without regard to the structures on the previous levels. This paper aims to explore the interplay of these permutations, the resulting structure being called \textit{actads}. The actads are indexed so that monoids are \(0\)-actads and operads are \(1\)-actads. A \(3\)-base is visualized as a tree drawn in the way that, in the place of each node of a tree, one puts a triangle whose vertex is the node, and whose base contains the successor nodes, where each triangle can be recursively subdivided into a tree in a similar fashion. In \(n\)-actads with \(n>1\), the permutations on the different levels give rise to a certain special kind of \(n\)-fold category. The concept of iterated algebras over an \(n\)-actad and various types of iterated units are investigated. Some examples of algebras over \(2\)-actads are given, being shown to be used to construct certain new interesting homotopy types of operads. A connection between actads and ordinal notation is also discussed.