Trace-like functionals on the double of the Taft Hopf algebra. (Q2498872)

Let \(H\) be a finite-dimensional Hopf algebra over a field. Its quantum double \(D(H)\) is a quasitriangular Hopf algebra, whose dual \(D(H)^*\) is isomorphic as an algebra to the convolution algebra \(\Hom(H,H^{op})\). The authors study the cocommutative elements of \(D(H)^*\) (the ``trace-like functionals'' in the title) and their relations to regular isotopy invariants of oriented knots and links, in particular when \(H\) is the \(n^2\)-dimensional Taft Hopf algebra \(H_n\). It is known that \(\text{Cocomm}(D(H)^*)\) is isomorphic as an algebra to the center of \(D(H)\). The authors describe intrinsically the elements of \(\text{Cocomm}(D(H)^*)\) as certain linear endomorphisms of \(H\). This characterization is used to show that the dimension of \(\text{Cocomm}(D(H_n)^*)\) is \(n^2+n(n-1)/2\). \(D(H)\) has a natural twist oriented quantum algebra structure, and each element of\break \(\text{Cocomm}(D(H)^*)\) gives a regular isotopy invariant of oriented knots and links. For some of these elements, the authors describe these invariants for knots built from curls and for the Hopf link. They show how their calculations can be viewed as computation of traces of certain endomorphisms of the tensor product of a number of copies of \(H\), where that number is the number of link components.