Graph operads: general construction and natural extensions of canonical operads

Abstract

We propose a new way of defining and studying operads on multigraphs and similar objects. For this purpose, we use the combinatorial species setting. We study in particular two operads obtained with our method. The former is a direct generalization of the Kontsevich-Willwacher operad. This operad can be seen as a canonical operad on multigraphs, and has many interesting suboperads. The latter operad is a natural extension of the pre-Lie operad in a sense developed here and it is related to the multigraph operad. We also present various results on some of the finitely generated suboperads of the multigraph operad and establish links between them and the commutative operad and the commutative magmatic operad.