Equivariant operads, string topology, and Tate cohomology

From an operad C with an action of a group G, we construct new operads using the homotopy fixed point and orbit spectra. These new operads are shown to be equivalent when the generalized G-Tate cohomology of C is trivial. Applying this theory to the little disk operad C_2 (which is an S^1 operad) we obtain variations on Getzler's gravity operad, which we show governs the Chas-Sullivan string bracket.Comment: 36 pages, 1 figure. Changes: main proofs and exposition streamlined, new section on continuous cohomology of operads, font changed. To appear in Math. An

Operads of moduli spaces of points in C^d

We compute the structure of the homology of an operad built from the spaces TH_{d,n} of configurations of points in C^d, modulo translation and homothety. We find that it is a mild generalization of Getzler's gravity operad, which occurs in dimension d = 1.Comment: 6 page

A higher chromatic analogue of the image of J

We prove a higher chromatic analogue of Snaith's theorem which identifies the K-theory spectrum as the localisation of the suspension spectrum of CP^\infty away from the Bott class; in this result, higher Eilenberg-MacLane spaces play the role of CP^\infty = K(Z,2). Using this, we obtain a partial computation of the part of the Picard-graded homotopy of the K(n)-local sphere indexed by powers of a spectrum which for large primes is a shift of the Gross-Hopkins dual of the sphere. Our main technical tool is a K(n)-local notion generalising complex orientation to higher Eilenberg-MacLane spaces. As for complex-oriented theories, such an orientation produces a one-dimensional formal group law as an invariant of the cohomology theory. As an application, we prove a theorem that gives evidence for the chromatic redshift conjecture.Comment: 43 pages, comments welcome. Version 4: further clarified sign character, streamlined arguments with homotopy fixed point spectra, added a new section on the monochromatic J-homomorphis

String homology of spheres and projective spaces

We study a spectral sequence that computes the (mod 2) S^1-equivariant homology of the free loop space LM of a manifold M (the "string homology" of M). Using it and knowledge of the string topology operations on the homology of LM, we compute the string homology of M when M is a sphere or a projective space.Comment: 11 page

Hochschild homology of structured algebras

We give a general method for constructing explicit and natural operations on the Hochschild complex of algebras over any PROP with $A_\infty$--multiplication---we think of such algebras as $A_\infty$--algebras "with extra structure". As applications, we obtain an integral version of the Costello-Kontsevich-Soibelman moduli space action on the Hochschild complex of open TCFTs, the Tradler-Zeinalian action of Sullivan diagrams on the Hochschild complex of strict Frobenius algebras, and give applications to string topology in characteristic zero. Our main tool is a generalization of the Hochschild complex.Comment: Substantial revision in sections 2 (graph models) and 6 (the examples). Introduction revise