Bialgebras over noncommutative rings and a structure theorem for Hopf bimodules (Q1264239)

It is important for bialgebras that the category of modules over an algebra \(L\) is a monoidal category if and only if \(L\) has a bialgebra structure. In this paper, the author studies a class of algebras whose module categories are also monoidal categories; however, the underlying functor to the category of \(K\)-vector spaces fails to be monoidal where \(K\) is a fixed commutative ring. Instead, it is shown that there is a suitable underlying functor to the category of \(B\)-bimodules over a \(K\)-algebra \(B\) which is monoidal with respect to the tensor product over \(B\). In other words, the author studies algebras \(L\) such that for two \(L\)-modules \(V\) and \(W\) there is a natural tensor product, which is the tensor product \(V\otimes_BW\) over another \(K\)-algebra \(B\), equipped with an \(L\)-module structure defined via some kind of comultiplication of \(L\). It is shown that this property is characteristic for \(\times_B\)-bialgebras as studied by Sweedler (for commutative \(B\)) and Takeuchi. The motivating example is given when \(H\) is a Hopf algebra and \(A\) an \(H\)-Galois extension of \(B\). In this situation, an algebra \(L:=L(A,H)\) is constructed, which was previously shown to be a Hopf algebra if \(B=K\). The author proves that there is a structure theorem for relative Hopf bimodules in the form of a category equivalence \({_AM^H_A}\cong{_LM}\). The category on the left-hand side has a natural structure of monoidal category (with the tensor product over \(A\)) which induces the structure of a monoidal category on the right-hand side. The \(\times_B\)-bialgebra structure of \(L\) that corresponds to this monoidal structure generalizes the Hopf algebra structure on \(L(A,H)\) known for \(B=K\). Several other structure theorems are given, involving \(L=L(A,H)\) in the form of category equivalences \({^LM}\cong{^HM}\), \({^L_AM}\cong{_KM}\), \({^L_AM_A}\cong M_H\), \({^L_AM^H}\cong M^H\) and \({^L_AM^H_A}\cong YD^H_H\).