On the formality of the little disks operad in positive characteristic

Abstract

Using a variant of the Boardman-Vogt tensor product, we construct an action of the Grothendieck-Teichm\"uller group on the completion of the little n-disks operad $E_n$. This action is used to establish a partial formality theorem for $E_n$ with mod $p$ coefficients and to give a new proof of the formality theorem in characteristic zero.