Quantum and braided group Riemannian geometry (Q1299343)

One of the main motivations for noncommutative geometry comes from the need for formulation of gravity and quantum mechanics in a unified manner. To achieve this aim, it is necessary to develop (pseudo-)Riemannian geometry on non-commutative spaces. This paper introduces elements of Riemannian geometry for quantum and braided groups. The approach used in the present paper is based on a gauge theory of quantum differential forms. The key notion is that of a frame resolution, defined as a quantum group principal bundle over a quantum manifold \(M\) with a strongly tensorial form which provides the space of one-forms on \(M\) with the structure of an associated fibre bundle. The author begins by reformulating classical Riemannian geometry as such a frame resolution with a dual pair of canonical forms. In this formulation, the role of Levi-Civita connections is extended to connections with vanishing torsion and cotorsion. Then the author provides the corresponding quantum group and braided group formulations with the universal quantum differential calculus and indicates how this construction can be generalised to non-universal differential calculi. The paper is completed with a wide range of examples of frame resolutions, including resolutions of quantum homogeneous spaces such as quantum spheres, braided groups including quantum planes, biproducts, and the quantum double. In the opinion of the reviewer, this is a very important paper which fills in a long-standing gap in noncommutative geometry based on quantum group symmetries. This paper should be of great interest for all mathematical physicists and geometers alike who would like to build models of gravity based on quantum groups or develop the metric aspects of `Planck-scale geometry'.