Skew primitive elements in Hopf algebras and related identities (Q5936920)

Let \(H\) be a Hopf algebra with skew-primitive generators. The author shows that any non-zero bi-ideal of \(H\) contains a non-zero skew-primitive element, but notes that the skew-primitive elements in a bi-ideal may not generate it. This leads to the notion of a combinatorial rank of \(H\) as the length of an increasing chain of certain Hopf ideals of the free algebra on the skew-primitive generators. This is used to define a quantum universal enveloping algebra of a given rank for any Lie algebra with a combinatorial representation. This quantum universal enveloping algebra of rank \(k\) is a character Hopf algebra (see the author's previous paper for the definition [Algebra Logika 37, No. 2, 181-223 (1998; Zbl 0917.16017)]) of combinatorial rank \(\leq k\). The main theorem of the paper proves a converse for character Hopf algebras over a field of characteristic zero which are homogeneous with respect to the degree function assigning the value 1 to each skew-primitive generator. Such a Hopf algebra is then isomorphic to the quantum enveloping algebra of a Lie algebra. The main tool is a quantum version of the Specht-Weaver criterion characterizing the homogeneous Lie polynomials in a free algebra. For a homogeneous character Hopf algebra, the quantum Specht-Weaver conditions are necessary conditions. They are not sufficient at positive characteristic. However, they are sufficient at characteristic zero, enabling the proof of the main theorem.