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Abstract Let X be a simply connected closed oriented manifold of rationally elliptic homotopy type. We prove that the string topology bracket on the $S^1$ -equivariant homology $$ {\overline {\text {H}}}_\ast ^{S^1}({\mathcal {L}} X,{\mathbb {Q}}) $$ of the free loop space of X preserves the Hodge decomposition of $$ {\overline {\text {H}}}_\ast ^{S^1}({\mathcal {L}} X,{\mathbb {Q}}) $$ , making it a bigraded Lie algebra. We deduce this result from a general theorem on derived Poisson structures on the universal enveloping algebras of homologically nilpotent finite-dimensional DG Lie algebras. Our theorem settles a conjecture of [7]. 

Abstract In this paper, we introduce and study representation homology of topological spaces, which is a natural homological extension of representation varieties of fundamental groups. We give an elementary construction of representation homology parallel to the Loday–Pirashvili construction of higher Hochschild homology; in fact, we establish a direct geometric relation between the two theories by proving that the representation homology of the suspension of a (pointed connected) space is isomorphic to its higher Hochschild homology. We also construct some natural maps and spectral sequences relating representation homology to other homology theories associated with spaces (such as Pontryagin algebras, $${{\mathbb{S}}}^1$$-equivariant homology of the free loop space, and stable homology of automorphism groups of f.g. free groups). We compute representation homology explicitly (in terms of known invariants) in a number of interesting cases, including spheres, suspensions, complex projective spaces, Riemann surfaces, and some 3-dimensional manifolds, such as link complements in $${\mathbb{R}}^3$$ and the lens spaces $ L(p,q) $. In the case of link complements, we identify the representation homology in terms of ordinary Hochschild homology, which gives a new algebraic invariant of links in $${\mathbb{R}}^3$$.