Cyclic operad formality for compactified moduli spaces of genus zero surfaces (Q2844734)

Recall that the operad of framed little \(n\)-discs \(fD_n\) consists of configurations of little \(n\)-discs, which are embedded in a fixed unit disc by using a combination of translations, dilatations, and rotations (as opposed to the classical little \(n\)-discs operad of Boardman-Vogt which does not involve any rotation).NEWLINENEWLINEThe homology of the operad of framed little \(2\)-discs is identified with an operad in graded modules governing the category of Batalin-Vilkovsky algebras (see [\textit{E. Getzler}, Commun. Math. Phys. 159, No. 2, 265--285 (1994; Zbl 0807.17026)]). This operad is usually denoted by~\(BV\) in the literature. The authors of the paper under review and P. Ševera proved by different methods that the operad of framed little \(2\)-discs is formal in the sense that the operad of singular chains \(C^{sing}_*(fD_2)\) associated to this operad in topological spaces \(fD_2\) is connected to the corresponding homology operad \(BV = H_*(fD_2)\) by a chain of quasi-isomorphisms of operads in chain complexes \(C^{sing}_*(fD_2)\overset{\sim}\leftarrow\cdot\overset{\sim}{\rightarrow} H_*(fD_2)\) (see [\textit{J. Giansiracusa} and \textit{P. Salvatore}, Contemp. Math. 519, 115--121 (2010; Zbl 1209.18008)] and [\textit{P. Ševera}, Lett. Math. Phys. 93, No. 1, 29--35 (2010; Zbl 1207.55008)]).NEWLINENEWLINEBut the spaces of framed little \(n\)-discs also inherit an extra cycle action which enables us to swap the outputs and inputs of operations together in this operad \(fD_n\), so that \(fD_n\) actually forms a cyclic operad in the sense of \textit{E. Getzler} and \textit{M. Kapranov} [Conf. Proc. Lect. Notes Geom. Topol. 4, 167--201 (1995; Zbl 0883.18013)]. The goal of the paper under review is to prove that the formality quasi-isomorphisms of the operad of little \(2\)-discs can be enhanced to a chain of formality quasi-isomorphisms of cyclic operads.NEWLINENEWLINEThe authors use a cyclic operad \(f\underline{\mathcal{M}}\), weakly-equivalent to the framed little \(2\)-discs \(fD_2\), introduced by \textit{T. Kimura, J. Stasheff} and \textit{A. A. Voronov} [Commun. Math. Phys. 171, No. 1, 1--25 (1995; Zbl 0844.57039)] and defined by certain real oriented blow-ups of the moduli spaces of genus zero stable surfaces with marked points \(\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{0 n}\). The authors adapt a construction of Kontsevich to define a chain of formality quasi-isomorphisms of cyclic operads for this model \(f\underline{\mathcal{M}}\) of the operad of framed little \(2\)-discs \(fD_2\).