Kontsevich's Swiss cheese conjecture (Q258879)

The starting point for the main result of this paper is the Deligne Conjecture, which has inspired much research and has several different proofs. Given an associative algebra \(A\), its Hochschild cohomology \(HH^*(A)\) has both the structure of a graded Lie algebra and a graded commutative algebra; the compatibility of these two structures is known as a Gerstenhaber algebra structure. This structure is governed by the homology of the little disks operad, \(H_*(E_2)\), so \(HH^*(A)\) has the structure of an \(H_*(E_2)\)-algebra. The Deligne Conjecture was that this structure arose from an analogous structure on the chain level. Working on the chain level, one can replace the associative structure of \(A\) with an \(E_1\)-structure, and thus the Deligne Conjecture says that the Hochschild cochains of an \(E_1\)-algebra can be given an \(E_2\)-algebra structure. From this perspective, one can naturally give a much more general conjecture: given an \(E_d\)-algebra, is there an \(E_{d+1}\)-structure on its Hochschild cochains? This question is known as Kontsevich's Swiss Cheese Conjecture, and the purpose of this paper is to give a proof. The name of the conjecture comes from the framework of Voronov's Swiss cheese operad \(SC_{d+1} \)which governs the desired interaction between the \(E_d\)-operad and the \(E_{d+1}\)-operad. In particular, this operad is 2-colored, and its algebras are pairs \((B,A)\) where \(B\) is an \(E_{d+1}\)-algebra, \(A\) is an \(E_d\)-algebra, and there is a compatible structure between the two which is referred to as an action of \(B\) on \(A\). The main result of this paper is not only that the Swiss Cheese Conjecture is true, but also that the \(E_{d+1}\)-algebra acting on the Hochschild cochains of an \(E_d\)-algebra \(A\) is the universal one which acts on \(A\). The proof uses several variants of the Swiss cheese operad, and of particular importance is the fact that the Swiss cheese operad is generated by its components in degrees 0 and 1.