We settle several fundamental questions about the theory of universal deformation quantization of Lie bialgebras by giving their complete classification up to homotopy equivalence. Moreover, we settle these questions in a greater generality: we give a complete classification of the associated universal formality maps. An important new technical ingredient introduced in this paper is a polydifferential endofunctor ${\mathcal {D}}$ in the category of augmented props with the property that for any representation of a prop ${\mathcal {P}}$ in a vector space $V$ the associated prop ${\mathcal {D}}{\mathcal {P}}$ admits an induced representation on the graded commutative algebra $\odot ^\bullet V$ given in terms of polydifferential operators. Applying this functor to the minimal resolution $\widehat {\mathcal {L}\textit{ieb}}_\infty$ of the genus completed prop $\widehat {\mathcal {L}\textit{ieb}}$ of Lie bialgebras we show that universal formality maps for quantizations of Lie bialgebras are in one-to-one correspondence with morphisms of dg props

\[F: \mathcal{A}\textit{ssb}_\infty \longrightarrow {\mathcal{D}}\widehat{\mathcal{L}\textit{ieb}}_\infty \]

$\mathcal {A}\textit{ssb}_\infty$

$\mathfrak{A}$

${\mathcal {L}} ie_\infty$

${\mathcal {L}} ie_\infty$

$\mathsf {Def}({\mathcal {A}} ss{\mathcal {B}}_\infty \rightarrow {\mathcal {E}} nd_{\odot ^\bullet V})$

$\mathsf {Def}({\mathcal {L}} ie{\mathcal {B}}\rightarrow {\mathcal {E}} nd_V)$

$\odot V$

$V$

$\mathsf {Def}(\mathcal {A}\textit{ssb}_\infty \stackrel {F}{\rightarrow } {\mathcal {D}}\widehat {\mathcal {L}\textit{ieb}}_\infty )$

$\{F_\mathfrak{A}\}$

$GRT=GRT_1\rtimes {\mathbb {K}}^*$

$\{\mathfrak{A}\}$

We study behaviours of the ‘equianharmonic’ parameter of the Grothendieck–Teichmüller group introduced by Lochak and Schneps. Using geometric construction of a certain one-parameter family of quartics, we realize the Galois action on the fundamental group of a punctured Mordell elliptic curve in the standard Galois action on a specific subgroup of the braid group . A consequence is to represent a matrix specialization of the ‘equianharmonic’ parameter in terms of special values of the adelic beta function introduced and studied by Anderson and Ihara.

Let $\mathbbm{k}$ be a (topological) field of characteristic 0. To any representation of a given Hopf algebra $\mathfrak{B}_n(\mathbbm{k})$, one can associate (using a Drinfeld associator) a representation $\widehat{\Phi}(\rho)$ of the braid group over the field $\mathbbm{k}((h))$ of Laurent series. We investigate the dependence on $\Phi$ of $\widehat{\Phi}(\rho)$ for a certain class of representations (so-called GT-rigid representations) and from this dependence deduce (continuous) projective representations of the Grothendieck–Teichmüller group $GT_1(\mathbbm{k})$; in particular, for $\mathbbm{k} = \mathbbm{Q}_l$ we obtain representations of the absolute Galois group of $\mathbbm{Q}(\mu_{l^{\infty}})$. In most situations, these projective representations can be decomposed into linear characters, as we do for the representations of the Iwahori–Hecke algebra of type A. In this case, moreover, we express $\widehat{\Phi}(\rho)$ when $\Phi$ is even and obtain unitary matrix models for the representations of the Iwahori–Hecke algebra. The representations of this algebra corresponding to hook diagrams have noteworthy properties under the action of $GT_1(\mathbbm{k})$.