1202.3245 (Bruno Vallette)

Algebra+Homotopy=Operad    [PDF]

Bruno Vallette

This survey provides an elementary introduction to operads and to their
applications in homotopical algebra. The aim is to explain how the notion of an
operad was prompted by the necessity to have an algebraic object which encodes
higher homotopies. We try to show how universal this theory is by giving many
applications in Algebra, Geometry, Topology, and Mathematical Physics. (This
text is accessible to any student knowing what tensor products, chain
complexes, and categories are.)

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.3245