English

Universal Properties of Variations of the Little Cubes Operads

Algebraic Topology 2026-04-07 v2

Abstract

Given a map BBTop(n)B\to B\mathrm{Top}(n) of spaces, one can define a version EB\mathbb{E}_{B} of the little cubes operad, whose construction is due to Lurie. We show that EB\mathbb{E}_{B} enjoys the universal property that, for every \infty-operad O\mathcal{O}, an operad map EBO\mathbb{E}_{B}\to\mathcal{O} is equivalent to a Top(n)\mathrm{Top}(n)-equivariant map B×BTop(n)ETop(n)Map(En,O)B\times_{B\mathrm{Top}(n)}E\mathrm{Top}(n)\to\operatorname{Map}(\mathbb{E}_{n},\mathcal{O}). This gives us an explicit diagram exhibiting EB\mathbb{E}_{B} as a colimit of En\mathbb{E}_{n} parametrized by BB. It also shows that locally constant factorization algebras satisfy descent, reproving a recent theorem of Matsuoka.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2406.01084,
  title  = {Universal Properties of Variations of the Little Cubes Operads},
  author = {Kensuke Arakawa},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.01084},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

21 pages. Some arguments simplified and exposition improved, thanks to comments from the editor and referee. Identical to the version accepted in the M\"unster Journal of Mathematics, except for formatting