BFV-complex and higher homotopy structures (Q842417)

This paper studies the link between the BFV-complex and the strong homotopy Lie algebroid associated to a coisotropic submanifold of a Poisson manifold. Let us recall that the strong homotopy Lie algebroid is a new algebraic structure, recently investigated by Cattaneo-Felder in the Poisson case. In this work, the author shows that the BFV-complex and the strong homotopy Lie algebroid structure are L-infinity-quasi-isomorphic. In particular, the formal deformation problems associated to both structures are equivalent. It is however also proved that there is a gap between the non-formal information encoded in the two structures. More precisely, the author presents an example of a coisotropic submanifold inside a Poisson manifold where the strong homotopy Lie algebroid does not capture obstructions to deformations.