The homotopy Gerstenhaber algebra of Hochschild cochains of a regular algebra is formal (Q947854)

Deligne's Hochschild conjecture, having stimulated much interest in string theoriests, claims that the Hochschild complex of an associative algebra admits a canonical structure of a differential graded algebra over the chain operad of the little discs operads. Several authors (\textit{M. Kontsevich} and \textit{Y. Soibelman} [Volume I. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Math. Phys. Stud. 21, 255--307 (2000; Zbl 0972.18005)], \textit{J. E. McClure} and \textit{J. H. Smith} [Contemp. Math. 293, 153--193 (2002; Zbl 1009.18009)], \textit{V. Hinich} [Forum Math. 15, No. 4, 591--614 (2003; Zbl 1081.16014)] and \textit{A. A. Voronov} [Volume II. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Math. Phys. Stud. 22, 307--331 (2000; Zbl 0974.16005)]) have settled the conjecture affirmatively, which has demonstrated a remarkable fact that the complex \(C^{\cdot}(A)\) of Hochschild cochains of an associative algebra \(A\)\ is endowed with the distinguishable structure of a homotopy \textit{M. Gerstenhaber} algebra [Ann. Math. (2) 78, 267--288 (1963; Zbl 0131.27302)]. This paper constructs a natural chain of quasi-isomorphisms of homotopy Gerstenhaber algebras between the Hochschild cochain complex of a regular commutative algebra \(A\) and the Gerstenhaber algebras of multiderivations of \(A\), which enables us to have an explicit construction of a chain of quasi-isomorphisms and to dispense with the really bulky Gelfand-Fuchs machinery in establishing the formality theorem.