From configuration spaces to graph complexes via FA-modules

Abstract

Work of Gadish and Hainaut (after Petersen) models the compactly supported cohomology of a wedge of circles as a polynomial functor. We identify the coefficients of this functor, $\Phi[n,m]$, via a cobar construction of $\mathbf{FA}$-modules. This identification formally implies that these coefficients will arise in computations of graph homology, and we use this result to give examples of graph complexes whose homology may be embedded in $H_c^\ast(F(S^1\vee S^1,n))$. This includes the Payne-Willwacher marked graph complex in genus 2, for which we give a new, explicit decomposition in terms of $\mathbf{FA}$-modules. This allows us to describe $\mathsf{gr}_{11}H_c^{\ast}(\mathcal{M}_{2,n})$ as the cohomology of a complex of decorated trees and to show, for example, $\mathsf{gr}_{11}H_c^{n+1}(\mathcal{M}_{2,n})=0$.