André-Quillen cohomology of algebras over an operad (Q633611)

The author studies André-Quillen cohomology for algebras over an operad. To compute it explicitly from a chain complex, he uses Koszul duality theory to provide functorial resolutions of algebras. The cotangent complex is an object which represents André-Quillen cohomology and the differential on this cotangent complex is made explicit using notions of twisting morphisms for algebras over an operad. When the operad is Koszul, the cotangent complex, and the André-Quillen cohomology for the algebras over this operad, are described using its Koszul complex. In this way, classical cohomology theories (André-Quillen for commutative algebras, Hochschild for associative algebras, Chevalley-Eilenberg for Lie algebras) as well other more recent (for Poisson algebras, Leibniz algebras,\dots) are recovered. The question, asked by \textit{T. Pirashvili}, of characterizing operads such that the associated André-Quillen cohomology of algebras is an Ext-functor is answered in this paper. When \(\mathcal{P}\) is an operad satisfying the PBW property, that is, the \(\mathcal{P}\)-algebras satisfy an analogue of Poincare-Birkhoff-Witt theorem, then André-Quillen cohomology for any algebra over this operad is an Ext-functor if, and only if, the functorial cotangent complex is quasi-isomorphic to the functorial module of Kähler differential forms. Thus, this functorial cotangent complex, which depends only on the operad, carries the obstruction for the André-Quillen cohomology to be an Ext-functor. This obstruction can be also measured by means of the homology groups of the chain complex kernel of the map between the functorial cotangent complex and the module of differential forms. In this way, it is shown that there exist commutative algebras such that André-Quillen cohomology is not an Ext-functor over their enveloping algebra. Finally, the criteria are applied to homotopy algebras.