Hidden structures behind ambient symmetries of the Maurer-Cartan equation

Abstract

For every differential graded Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ one can define two different group actions on the Maurer-Cartan elements: the ubiquitous gauge action and the action of $\mathrm{Lie}_\infty$-isotopies of $\mathfrak{g}$, which we call the ambient action. In this note, we explain how the assertion of gauge triviality of a homologically trivial ambient action relates to the calculus of dendriform, Zinbiel, and Rota-Baxter algebras, and to Eulerian idempotents. In particular, we exhibit new relationships between these algebraic structures and the operad of rational functions defined by Loday.