Graph cohomology classes in the Batalin–Vilkovisky formalism

This paper gives a conceptual formulation of Kontsevich’s ‘dual construction’ producing graph cohomology classes from a differential graded Frobenius algebra with an odd scalar product. Our construction–whilst equivalent to the original one–is combinatorics-free and is based on the Batalin–Vilkovisky formalism, from which its gauge independence is immediate.