Multiple zeta values in deformation quantization

Abstract

Kontsevich's 1997 formula for the deformation quantization of Poisson brackets is a Feynman expansion involving volume integrals over moduli spaces of marked disks. We develop a systematic theory of integration on these moduli spaces via suitable algebras of polylogarithms, and use it to prove that Kontsevich's integrals can be expressed as integer-linear combinations of multiple zeta values. Our proof gives a concrete algorithm for calculating the integrals, which we have used to produce the first software package for the symbolic calculation of Kontsevich's formula.