Operads of genus zero curves and the Grothendieck-Teichmüller group (Q666710)

Let $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$ be the moduli space of genus $g$ curves with $n$ marked points. The Galois group $\text{Gal}(\overline{\mathbb{Q}}/\mathbb{Q})$ acts faithfully on the geometric fundamental groups of the ``Teichmüller tower'' of $\{ \mathcal{M}_{g,n} \}$ (i.e. the collection of all the stacks and the natural maps between them). Ihara showed that this action extends to a faithful action of the profinite Grothendieck-Teichmüller group $\widehat{\mathrm{GT}}$, which contains $\text{Gal}(\overline{\mathbb{Q}}/\mathbb{Q})$. \par The authors of the paper under review prove that $\widehat{\mathrm{GT}}$ is actually equal to the group of homotopy automorphisms of the Teichmüller tower in genus $g = 0$. They use an operadic model $\mathcal{M}$ of the genus $0$ Teichmüller tower: they replace marked point by boundary circles, which allows to glue curves along boundary components and to fill boundary components. These operations yield maps between the corresponding moduli spaces, and the operad obtained this way is equivalent to the classical framed little disks operad. The authors' first main theorem states more precisely that $\widehat{\mathrm{GT}}$ is the group of homotopy automorphisms of the profinite completion of $\mathcal{M}$. The difficult part of this theorem is showing that the obvious faithful action of $\widehat{\mathrm{GT}}$ on each $\mathcal{M}(n)$ is compatible with the operad structure (which is related to [\textit{A. Hatcher} et al., J. Reine Angew. Math. 521, 1--24 (2000; Zbl 0953.20030)]) and that all homotopy automorphisms are obtained this way. \par The authors' second main theorem deals with the compactification $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{g,n}$ of $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$, obtained by allowing nodal singularities in the curves. These moduli spaces admit a natural operadic structure by gluing curves along marked points. The operad $\mathcal{M}$ maps to $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{0,\bullet+1}$ (the latter being a homotopy quotient of the former under an $\mathrm{SO}(2)$-action [\textit{G. C. Drummond-Cole}, J. Topol. 7, No. 3, 641--676 (2014; Zbl 1301.55005)]). The authors prove that the action of $\widehat{\mathrm{GT}}$ on the profinite completion of $\mathcal{M}$ extends to a nontrivial action on the profinite completion of $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{0,\bullet+1}$. Note that actions of $\widehat{\mathrm{GT}}$ are usually constructed on schemes whose associated complex analytic spaces are $K(\pi,1)$, whereas $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{0,n+1}$ is simply connected.