Bialgebra cohomology, pointed Hopf algebras, and deformations. (Q1013113)

The authors study a long exact sequence connecting bialgebra cohomology with Hochschild cohomology found by \textit{M. Gerstenhaber} and \textit{S. D. Schack} [Contemp. Math. 134, 51-92 (1992; Zbl 0788.17009)]. In the case of a finite dimensional Hopf algebra, by results of \textit{P. Schauenburg} [J. Algebra 169, No. 3, 874-890 (1994; Zbl 0810.16037)] and \textit{R. Taillefer} [Algebr. Represent. Theory 7, No. 5, 471-490 (2004; Zbl 1078.16006)], bialgebra cohomology may be expressed as Hochschild cohomology of the Drinfeld double. The authors give a direct proof of this fact, and obtain a reinterpretation of the long exact sequence in this context. Explicit formulas for maps in the long exact sequence are given, as well as explicit conditions for the connecting homomorphism to be surjective in degree \(2\). As an application the authors compute the (truncated) bialgebra cohomology in degree \(2\) of the finite dimensional graded pointed Hopf algebras that arise in the classification of \textit{N. Andruskiewitsch} and \textit{H.-J. Schneider} [On the classification of finite-dimensional pointed Hopf algebras, to appear in Ann. Math., preprint math.QA/0502157 (2005)]. They also give applications to the rank one Hopf algebras of \textit{L. Krop} and \textit{D. E. Radford} [J. Algebra 302, No. 1, 214-230 (2006; Zbl 1126.16028)].