Homology of moduli spaces of curves and commutative homotopy algebras

We propose an explicit relation between the cohomology of compactified and noncompactified moduli spaces of algebraic curves with punctures. This relationship generalizes one between commutative algebras and Lie algebras proposed by Lazard, Kontsevich and Ginzburg and Kapranov. More explicitly, we show that the cohomology of one moduli space is the graph complex decorated with the cohomology of the other, which in its turn generalizes Getzler's result for the genus zero moduli. We also show that a certain class of algebras over the chain operad of compactified moduli spaces has a natural structure of a commutative homotopy algebra. This may be regarded as a lifting of the dot product of Lian-Zuckerman's BV algebra structure to the cochain level, thus complementing the results of an earlier paper hep-th/9307114 of the authors regarding the BV bracket.