Loops on surfaces, Feynman diagrams, and trees (Q556169)

The author introduced a Lie cobracket \(\nu\) in the module \(Z(\Sigma)\) generated by the homotopy classes of loops on an oriented surface \(\Sigma\) in 1989. The cobracket \(\nu\) complements the Goldman Lie bracket, and the Goldman Lie bracket is a reformulation of the Poisson bracket determined by the symplectic structure on the Teichmüller space. But the geometric nature of the cobracket \(\nu\) remained mysterious. The paper under review is to resolve the geometric meaning of the Lie cobracket. The author introduces a similar pre-Lie algebra and Hopf algebra of loops like Connes and Kreimer in their work on perturbative quantum field theory. From loops to trees, the author defines the pre-Lie algebra and Hopf algebra canonical projections to the Connes-Kreimer algebras. In this way, the cobracket \(\nu\) is related to the Connes-Kreimer Lie bracket in the module additively generated by trees. The key result is Theorem 5.1 which constructs the pre-Lie algebra homomorphism between the pre-Lie coalgebra for loops and the one for rooted trees. The same homomorphism is also Hopf algebra homomorphism. In the last section, the author considers similar algebra structures in the realms of Wilson loops and knot diagrams on the surface \(\Sigma\).