The bar complex of an E-infinity algebra

Abstract: The standard reduced bar complex B(A) of a differential graded algebra A inherits a natural commutative algebra structure if A is a commutative algebra. We address an extension of this construction in the context of E-infinity algebras. We prove that the bar complex of any E-infinity algebra can be equipped with the structure of an E-infinity algebra so that the bar construction defines a functor from E-infinity algebras to E-infinity algebras. We prove the homotopy uniqueness of such natural E-infinity structures on the bar construction. We apply our construction to cochain complexes of topological spaces, which are instances of E-infinity algebras. We prove that the n-th iterated bar complexes of the cochain algebra of a space X is equivalent to the cochain complex of the n-fold iterated loop space of X, under reasonable connectedness, completeness and finiteness assumptions on X.

Review text

Let \(A\) be an augmented differential graded algebra over the ground ring \(R\), and let \(B(A)\) be the standard reduced bar complex of \(A\). The construction of the bar complex implies that if \(A\) is a commutative algebra then \(B(A)\) inherits the commutative algebra structure. The paper extends this property to the setting of \(E_{\infty}\)-algebras. Its main results show that if \(A\) is an \(E_{\infty}\)-algebra then \(B(A)\) can be equipped with an \(E_{\infty}\)-algebra structure in a functorial manner. Moreover, such functorial \(E_{\infty}\)-algebra structure on \(B(A)\) is essentially unique. This uniqueness property implies in particular that when \(A\) is a commutative algebra then the \(E_{\infty}\)-algebra structure on \(B(A)\) coincides with the standard commutative algebra structure. As an application of this result the author considers the \(E_{\infty}\)-algebra structure on \(C^{\ast}(X)\), the cochain complex of a topological space \(X\). He shows that under some assumptions on \(X\) the \(n\)-fold bar complex \(B^{n}(C^{\ast}(X))\) is equivalent to \(C^{\ast}(\Omega^{n} X)\), the cochain complex of the \(n\)-fold loop space on \(X\).

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