On mapping spaces of differential graded operads with the commutative operad as target

The category of differential graded operads is a cofibrantly generated model category and as such inherits simplicial mapping spaces. The vertices of an operad mapping space are just operad morphisms. The 1-simplices represent homotopies between morphisms in the category of operads. The goal of this paper is to determine the homotopy of the operadic mapping spaces Map(E_n,C) with a cofibrant E_n-operad on the source and the commutative operad on the target. First, we prove that the homotopy class of a morphism phi: E_n -> C is uniquely determined by a multiplicative constant which gives the action of phi on generating operations in homology. From this result, we deduce that the connected components of Map(E_n,C) are in bijection with the ground ring. Then we prove that each of these connected components is contractible. In the case where n is infinite, we deduce from our results that the space of homotopy self-equivalences of an E-infinity-operad in differential graded modules has contractible connected components indexed by invertible elements of the ground ring.Comment: 16 page

Betti numbers of Springer fibers in type A

We determine the Betti numbers of the Springer fibers in type A. To do this, we construct a cell decomposition of the Springer fibers. The codimension of the cells is given by an analogue of the Coxeter length. This makes our cell decomposition well suited for the calculation of Betti numbers.Comment: 17 page

The bar complex of an E-infinity algebra

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.Comment: 51 pages. Preprint put in Elsevier format. Minor additional writing correction