Cyclic operads, Koszul complexes, and hairy graph complexes

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.