English

Associahedron, cyclohedron, and permutohedron as compactifications of configuration spaces

Algebraic Topology 2009-04-23 v2 Geometric Topology

Abstract

As in the case of the associahedron and cyclohedron, the permutohedron can also be defined as an appropriate compactification of a configuration space of points on an interval or on a circle. The construction of the compactification endows the permutohedron with a projection to the cyclohedron, and the cyclohedron with a projection to the associahedron. We show that the preimages of any point via these projections might not be homeomorphic to (a cell decomposition of) a disk, but are still contractible. We briefly explain an application of this result to the study of knot spaces from the point of view of the Goodwillie-Weiss manifold calculus.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0612591,
  title  = {Associahedron, cyclohedron, and permutohedron as compactifications of configuration spaces},
  author = {P. Lambrechts and V. Tourtchine and I. Volic},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0612591},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

27 pages The new version gives a more detailed exposition for the projection from the cyclohedron to the associahedron as maps of compactifications of configuration spaces. We also develop a similar picture for the projection from the permutohedron to the cyclohedron/associahedron