arXiv subjects

Marcy Robertson

Publications and source records attributed to Marcy Robertson.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Galois actions on surfaces and a higher genus Grothendieck-Teichm\"uller group

We construct an operadic model for the higher-genus Teichm\"uller tower. More precisely, we define a modular operad $\mathbf{S}$ in groupoids built from mapping class groups, with compositions and contractions encoding gluing operations on surfaces. We prove a presentation theorem for maps out of $\mathbf{S}$, showing that they are determined by a small number of genus-zero and genus-one generators and relations. Using this presentation and the work of Nakamura--Schneps, we construct a faithful action of the Nakamura--Schneps subgroup $\widehat{\Gamma}\subseteq\widehat{\mathsf{GT}}$ on the profinite completion $\widehat{\mathbf{S}}$, and hence an action of $\operatorname{Gal}(\overline{\mathbb Q}/\mathbb Q)$. The genus-zero truncation of $\mathbf{S}$ recovers the cyclic operad of parenthesized ribbon braids, and its group of object-fixing profinite automorphisms recovers $\widehat{\mathsf{GT}}$. Finally, the profinite completion of the classifying spaces of $\mathbf{S}$ assemble into a modular $\infty$-operad in profinite spaces whose values identify with the \'etale homotopy types of moduli stacks of curves with marked tangent vectors, and the $\widehat{\Gamma}$-action extends to this homotopy-coherent Teichm\"uller tower.

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arXiv2025

Grothendieck--Teichm\"uller Symmetries of Cyclic Operads and Tangles

We characterise the profinite Grothendieck-Teichm\"uller group $\widehat{\mathsf{GT}}$ as the group of automorphisms of the profinite completion of a cyclic operad of parenthesised ribbon braids. This operad generates a symmetric monoidal category which is equivalent to the category of framed, oriented tangles, thereby providing an operadic model for profinite tangles and their arithmetic symmetries. As applications, we show that $\widehat{\mathsf{GT}}$ acts naturally on tangles and provide an alternative proof of the formality of the cyclic framed little disks operad.

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arXiv2025

Genus Zero Kashiwara-Vergne Solutions from Braids

Using the language of moperads -- monoids in the category of right modules over an operad -- we reinterpret the Alekseev--Enriquez--Torossian construction of Kashiwara--Vergne (KV) solutions from associators. We show that any equivalence between the moperad of parenthesized braids with a frozen strand and the moperad of chord diagrams gives rise to a family of genus zero KV solutions operadically generated by a single classical KV solution. We show that the Grothendieck--Teichm\"uller module groups act on the latter, intertwining the actions of the KV symmetry groups. In the other direction, we show that any symmetric KV solution gives rise to a module map from parenthesized braids with a frozen strand to tangential automorphisms of free Lie algebras. This map factors through the moperad of chord diagrams if and only if the associated KV associator is a Drinfeld associator.

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arXiv2023

Kashiwara-Vergne solutions degree by degree

We show that solutions to the Kashiwara-Vergne problem can be extended degree by degree. This can be used to simplify the computation of a class of Drinfel'd associators, which under the Alekseev-Torossian conjecture, may comprise all associators. We also give a proof that the associated graded Lie algebra of the Kashiwara-Vergne group is isomorphic to the graded Kashiwara-Vergne Lie algebra.

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arXiv2023

Lecture Notes on Modular Infinity Operads and Grothendieck-Teichmueller Theory

These notes represent the transcript of three, 90 minute lectures given by the second author at the CRM in Barcelona in 2021 as part of the "Higher Structures and Operadic Calculus" workshop. The goal of the series was to introduce and motivate modular infinity operads via their application to what is often called "Grothendieck-Teichmueller" theory.

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arXiv2022

A knot-theoretic approach to comparing the Grothendieck-Teichmüller and Kashiwara-Vergne groups

Homomorphic expansions are combinatorial invariants of knotted objects, which are universal in the sense that all finite-type (Vassiliev) invariants factor through them. Homomorphic expansions are also important as bridging objects between low-dimensional topology and quantum algebra. For example, homomorphic expansions of parenthesised braids are in one-to-one correspondence with Drinfel'd associators (Bar-Natan 1998), and homomorphic expansions of $w$-foams are in one-to-one correspondence with solutions to the Kashiwara-Vergne (KV) equations (Bar-Natan and the first author, 2017). The sets of Drinfel'd associators and KV solutions are both bi-torsors, with actions by the pro-unipotent Grothendieck-Teichmüller and Kashiwara-Vergne groups, respectively. The above correspondences are in fact maps of bi-torsors (Bar-Natan 1998, and the first and third authors with Halacheva 2022). There is a deep relationship between Drinfel'd associators and KV equations--discovered by Alekseev, Enriquez and Torossian in the 2010s--including an explicit formula constructing KV solutions in terms of associators, and an injective map $ρ:\mathsf{GRT}_1 \to \mathsf{KRV}$. This paper is a topological/diagrammatic study of the image of the Grothendieck-Teichmüller groups in the Kashiwara-Vergne symmetry groups, using the fact that both parenthesised braids and $w$-foams admit respective finite presentations as an operad and as a tensor category (circuit algebra or prop).

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arXiv2021

A topological characterisation of the Kashiwara-Vergne groups

In 2017 Bar-Natan and the first author showed that solutions to the Kashiwara--Vergne equations are in bijection with certain knot invariants: homomorphic expansions of welded foams. Welded foams are a class of knotted tubes in $\mathbb{R}^4$, which can be finitely presented algebraically as a circuit algebra, or, equivalently, a wheeled prop. In this paper we describe the Kashiwara-Vergne groups $\mathsf{KV}$ and $\mathsf{KRV}$ -- the symmetry groups of Kashiwara-Vergne solutions -- as automorphisms of the completed circuit algebras of welded foams, and their associated graded circuit algebra of arrow diagrams, respectively. Finally, we provide a description of the graded Grothendieck-Teichmüller group $\mathsf{GRT}_1$ as automorphisms of arrow diagrams.

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arXiv2020

Circuit algebras are wheeled props

Circuit algebras, introduced by Bar-Natan and the first author, are a generalization of Jones's planar algebras, in which one drops the planarity condition on "connection diagrams". They provide a useful language for the study of virtual and welded tangles in low-dimensional topology. In this note, we present the circuit algebra analogue of the well-known classification of planar algebras as pivotal categories with a self-dual generator. Our main theorem is that there is an equivalence of categories between circuit algebras and the category of linear wheeled props - a type of strict symmetric tensor category with duals that arises in homotopy theory, deformation theory and the Batalin-Vilkovisky quantization formalism.

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arXiv2020

An infinity operad of normalized cacti

We show that normalized cacti form an $\infty$-operad in the form of a dendroidal space satisfying a weak Segal condition. To do this, we introduce a new topological operad of bracketed trees and an enrichment of the dendroidal category $Ω$.

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arXiv2020

Modular operads and the nerve theorem

We describe a category of undirected graphs which comes equipped with a faithful functor into the category of (colored) modular operads. The associated singular functor from modular operads to presheaves is fully faithful, and its essential image can be classified by a Segal condition. This theorem can be used to recover a related statement, due to André Joyal and Joachim Kock, concerning a larger category of undirected graphs whose functor to modular operads is not just faithful but also full.

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arXiv2020

A graphical category for higher modular operads

We present a homotopy theory for a weak version of modular operads whose compositions and contractions are only defined up to homotopy. This homotopy theory takes the form of a Quillen model structure on the collection of simplicial presheaves for a certain category of undirected graphs. This new category of undirected graphs, denoted $\mathbf{U}$, plays a similar role for modular operads that the dendroidal category $Ω$ plays for operads. We carefully study properties of $\mathbf{U}$, including the existence of certain factorization systems. Related structures, such as cyclic operads and stable modular operads, can be similarly treated using categories derived from $\mathbf{U}$.

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arXiv2018

Higher cyclic operads

We introduce a convenient definition for weak cyclic operads, which is based on unrooted trees and Segal conditions. More specifically, we introduce a category $Ξ$ of trees, which carries a tight relationship to the Moerdijk-Weiss category of rooted trees $Ω$. We prove a nerve theorem exhibiting colored cyclic operads as presheaves on $Ξ$ which satisfy a Segal condition. Finally, we produce a Quillen model category whose fibrant objects satisfy a weak Segal condition, and we consider these objects as an up-to-homotopy generalization of the concept of cyclic operad.

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arXiv2018

A simplicial model for infinity properads

We show how the model structure on the category of simplicially-enriched (colored) props induces a model structure on the category of simplicially-enriched (colored) properads. A similar result holds for dioperads.

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arXiv2018

On factorizations of graphical maps

We study the categories governing infinity (wheeled) properads. The graphical category, which was already known to be generalized Reedy, is in fact an Eilenberg-Zilber category. A minor alteration to the definition of the wheeled graphical category allows us to show that it is a generalized Reedy category. Finally, we present model structures for Segal properads and Segal wheeled properads.

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arXiv2017

Operads of genus zero curves and the Grothendieck-Teichmüller group

We show that the group of homotopy automorphisms of the profinite completion of the genus zero surface operad is isomorphic to the (profinite) Grothendieck-Teichmüller group. Using a result of Drummond-Cole, we deduce that the Grothendieck-Teichmüller group acts nontrivially on $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{0,\bullet+1}$, the operad of stable curves of genus zero. As a second application, we give an alternative proof that the framed little 2-disks operad is formal.

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arXiv2017

Shrinkability, relative left properness, and derived base change

For a connected pasting scheme $\mathcal G$, under reasonable assumptions on the underlying category, the category of $\mathfrak C$-colored $\mathcal G$-props admits a cofibrantly generated model category structure. In this paper, we show that, if $\mathcal G$ is closed under shrinking internal edges, then this model structure on $\mathcal G$-props satisfies a (weaker version) of left properness. Connected pasting schemes satisfying this property include those for all connected wheeled graphs (for wheeled properads), wheeled trees (for wheeled operads), simply connected graphs (for dioperads), unital trees (for symmetric operads), and unitial linear graphs (for small categories). The pasting scheme for connected wheel-free graphs (for properads) does _not_ satisfy this condition. We furthermore prove, assuming $\mathcal G$ is shrinkable and our base categories are nice enough, that a weak symmetric monoidal Quillen equivalence between two base categories induces a Quillen equivalence between their categories of $\mathcal G$-props. The final section gives illuminating examples that justify the conditions on base model categories.

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arXiv2016

Lecture notes on infinity-properads

These are notes for three lectures on higher properads given at a program at the mathematical institute MATRIX in Australia in June 2016. The first lecture covers the case of operads, and provides a brief introduction to the Moerdijk-Weiss theory of dendroidal sets. The second lecture extends the discussion to properads and our work with Donald Yau on graphical sets. These two lectures conclude with models for higher (pr)operads given by an inner horn filling condition. Finally, in the last lecture, we explore some properties of the graphical category and use them to give a Segal-type model for higher properads.

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arXiv2016

Relative left properness of colored operads

The category of $\mathfrak{C}$-colored symmetric operads admits a cofibrantly generated model category structure. In this paper, we show that this model structure satisfies a relative left properness condition, i.e., that the class of weak equivalences between $Σ$-cofibrant operads is closed under cobase change along cofibrations. We also provide an example of Dwyer which shows that the model structure on $\mathfrak{C}$-colored symmetric operads is not left proper.

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