Profinite completion of operads and the Grothendieck-Teichmüller group

Abstract: In this paper, we prove that the group of homotopy automorphisms of the profinite completion of the operad of little $2$-disks is isomorphic to the profinite Grothendieck-Teichm\"uller group. In particular, the absolute Galois group of $\mathbb{Q}$ acts faithfully on the profinite completion of $E_2$ in the homotopy category of profinite weak operads.