Cyclic operads, Koszul complexes, and hairy graph complexes

TL;DR

This paper explores the homological properties of hairy graph complexes linked to cyclic operads, utilizing Koszul complexes and category theory to deepen understanding of their structure and relation to graph homology.

Contribution

It introduces a novel homological interpretation of hairy graph complexes via Koszul complexes and links these to cyclic operads and Kontsevich's Lie algebras, providing new insights into their structure.

Findings

Homology of hairy graph complexes can be interpreted through Koszul complexes.

The approach generalizes Kontsevich's Lie algebras and relates to graph homology.

New connections between cyclic operads, Koszul properties, and graph complexes are established.

Abstract

In this paper, we revisit the construction of the hairy graph complexes associated to a cyclic operad, by exploiting modules over the appropriate twisted linearization of the downward Brauer category (and working over a field of characteristic zero). The different flavours (even or odd) of complexes appear as forms of Koszul complexes; the Koszul property of the linear category provides an elegant homological interpretation of their homology. This approach allows a second form of Koszul complex to enter the picture. For the `even' flavour, this corresponds to a precursor of the Chevalley-Eilenberg complex of the Conant-Vogtmann Lie algebra associated to a cyclic operad and a symplectic vector space (generalizing Kontsevich's Lie algebras). Again, the cohomology of the Koszul complex has an elegant interpretation. This sheds light on the relationship between the unstable case and Kontsevich's identification (generalized by Conant and Vogtmann) of the homology in the infinite-dimensional case with a form of graph homology (in the even case). We observe that this is already of interest in the case of an algebra with involution, viewed as a cyclic operad.