A prismatic decomposition of the Barratt-Eccles operad (Q700310)

The article discusses the relationship between two \(E_\infty\)-operads, the Barratt-Eccles operad and the surjection operad. The Barratt-Eccles operad \(\mathcal{W}\) is a simplicial operad formed from the homogeneous bar construction on the symmetric groups. The associated differential graded operad is denoted \(\mathcal{E}\). The surjection operad \(\chi\) was introduced by \textit{J. E. McClure} and \textit{J. H. Smith} in their work on the Deligne conjecture [J. Am. Math. Soc. 16, No. 3, 681-704 (2003; Zbl 1014.18005)]. A morphism of operads \(\mathcal{E}\to \chi\) was constructed in previous work of the authors [\textit{C. Berger} and \textit{B. Fresse}, ``Combinatorial operad actions on cochains'', preprint,\break http:arXiv.org/abs/math.AT/0109158]. The main result proved here is the existence of a section \(\chi \to \mathcal{E}\). This comes from comparing the \(E_\infty\)-cellular structures of \(\mathcal{W}\) and of \(\mathcal{E}\), described by \textit{C. Berger} [Ann. Inst. Fourier 46, 1133-1166 (1996; Zbl 0853.55007)] and \textit{J. McClure} and \textit{J. H. Smith} (loc. cit.), respectively. There results a decomposition of the Barratt-Eccles operad into unions of prisms indexed by surjections.