Wheeled pro(p)file of Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism (Q964469)

The aim of this paper is to prove that solutions of the quantum master equation \(\hbar\Delta\Gamma + \{\Gamma,\Gamma\}/2 = 0\) satisfying a certain boundary condition in the semi-classical limit \(\hbar\rightarrow 0\) are equivalent to representations of a wheeled prop \(\mathcal{UL}ie^1\mathcal B_{\infty}\), the wheeled prop of strongly homotopy unimodular Lie \(1\)-bialgebras. Formally, the author defines a category of quantum BV-manifolds consisting of graded vector spaces \(V\) equipped with a quantum Batalin-Vilkovsky structure \(\Theta\). To be precise, the author deals with formal manifolds and with formal functions, bundles, structure sheaves, \dots, defined on a formal neighborhood of the origin in \(V\). In Darboux coordinates, the Batalin-Vilkovsky structure is determined by an expression of the form \(\Theta = e^{\Gamma/\hbar} D_{x,\psi}\), where \(\Gamma\) is precisely a solution of a considered quantum master equation on \(V\) and \(D_{x,\psi}\) is a Berezinian section (determined by the choice of coordinates). Recall that a prop (in the category of \(\mathbf k\)-vector spaces) models the structure formed by a collection of linear mappings together with a varying number of inputs and outputs: \(f: X^{\otimes m}\rightarrow X^{\otimes n}\). Roughly, a wheeled prop is a prop equipped with an additional structure operation which models the application of traces \(\text{Tr}: \Hom(X,X)\rightarrow\mathbf k\) gluing inputs and outputs of any such linear mapping \(f: X^{\otimes m}\rightarrow X^{\otimes n}\). The wheeled prop of unimodular Lie \(1\)-bialgebras \(\mathcal{UL}ie^1\mathcal B\) consists of formal composites of an abstract Lie comultiplication and an abstract Lie bracket of degree \(1\), on which we can also apply the trace operation. The wheeled prop of strongly homotopy unimodular Lie \(1\)-bialgebras \(\mathcal{UL}ie^1\mathcal B_{\infty}\) is defined by the application of a Koszul duality construction to \(\mathcal{UL}ie^1\mathcal B\). The main result of the article, the equivalence between the category of quantum BV-manifolds (solutions of the quantum master equation) and the category of representations of \(\mathcal{UL}ie^1\mathcal B_{\infty}\), follows from an interpretation of a Feynman type integration technique in terms of homotopy transfer formulas for representations of wheeled props.