Multiple zeta values and periods of moduli spaces
We prove a conjecture due to Goncharov and Manin which states that the periods of the moduli spaces of Riemann spheres with marked points are multiple zeta values. We do this by introducing a differential algebra of multiple polylogarithms on and proving that it is closed under the operation of taking primitives. The main idea is to apply a version of Stokes’ formula iteratively to reduce each period integral to multiple zeta values. We also give a geometric interpretation of the double shuffle...