The bar complex of an E-infinity algebra

Abstract

The standard reduced bar complex B(A) of a differential graded algebra A inherits a natural commutative algebra structure if A is a commutative algebra. We address an extension of this construction in the context of E-infinity algebras. We prove that the bar complex of any E-infinity algebra can be equipped with the structure of an E-infinity algebra so that the bar construction defines a functor from E-infinity algebras to E-infinity algebras. We prove the homotopy uniqueness of such natural E-infinity structures on the bar construction. We apply our construction to cochain complexes of topological spaces, which are instances of E-infinity algebras. We prove that the n-th iterated bar complexes of the cochain algebra of a space X is equivalent to the cochain complex of the n-fold iterated loop space of X, under reasonable connectedness, completeness and finiteness assumptions on X.