Calculus of functors, operad formality, and rational homology of embedding spaces (Q2465930)

Let \(M\) be a smooth manifold that is the interior of a compact manifold with boundary and let \(V\) be a Euclidean space. Let \(F(M) = \text{Emb}(M,V)\) be the space of smooth embeddings of \(M\) into \(V\), and \(\overline{\text{Emb}}(M,V)\) be the homotopy fiber of the injection \(\text{Emb}(M,V) \to \text{Imm}(M,V)\), where \(\text{Imm}(M,V)\) denotes the space of immersions of \(M\) into \(V\). Embedding calculus associates to \(F\) a tower of fibrations \(T_kT \to T_{k-1}F \to \cdots\) with \[ T_kF(U) = \text{holim}_{V\in {\mathcal O}_k, V\subset U} \, \, F(U) \] where \({\mathcal O}_k\) is the category of open subsets of \(M\) homeomorphic to the disjoint union of a most \(k\) open balls. Denote by \(T_\infty F\) the homotopy inverse limit of the tower \(T_kF\) and by \(\varphi_M : F(M)\to T_\infty F(M)\) the induced map. By the Goodwillie-Klein theorem, when dim\(\,V-\) dim\(\, M\geq 3\), \(\varphi_M\) is a homotopy equivalence. Here, using the Kontsevich theorem on the formality of the little balls operad the authors prove that if the basepoint embedding \(\alpha : M\to V\) factors through a subspace \(W\subset V\) with dim\(\, V \geq 2 \) dim\(\, W+1\), then the tower is formal in the sense that there is a chain of weak equivalences, natural in \(U\), \[ C_*(\overline{\text{Emb}}(U,V)\otimes\mathbb R) \simeq H_*(\overline{\text{Emb}}(U,V)\otimes\mathbb R)\,. \] Here \(U\in \widetilde{{\mathcal O}}_k(M)\), a suitable variation of \({\mathcal O}_k\). This formality theorem is then used to prove the collapsing of the spectral sequence for \(H_*(\overline{\text{Emb}}(M,V);\mathbb Q)\) that arises from the Taylor tower in the sense of orthogonal calculus, and the fact that \(H_*(\overline{\text{Emb}}(M,V);\mathbb Q)\) is a rational homotopy invariant of \(M\) : if \(M_1\) and \(M_2\) have the same rational homotopy type, then we have an isomorphism \(H_*(\overline{\text{Emb}}(M_1,V);\mathbb Q)\cong H_*(\overline{\text{Emb}}(M_2,V);\mathbb Q)\).