Coherent Unit Actions on Operads and Hopf Algebras

Abstract

Coherent unit actions on a binary, quadratic operad were introduced by Loday and were shown by him to give Hopf algebra structures on the free algebras when the operad is also regular with a splitting of associativity. Working with such operads, we characterize coherent unit actions in terms of linear equations of the generators of the operads. We then use these equations to give all possible operad relations that allow such coherent unit actions. We further show that coherent unit actions are preserved under taking products and thus yield Hopf algebras on the free object of the product operads when the factor operads have coherent unit actions. On the other hand, coherent unit actions are never preserved under taking the dual in the operadic sense except for the operad of associative algebras.