Some remarkable degenerations of quantum groups (Q1311685)

In this paper, the authors continue the study of the representation theory of quantum groups at roots of unity initiated in \textit{C. De Concini} and \textit{V. G. Kac} in Prog. Math. 92, 471-506 (1990; Zbl 0738.17008) and \textit{C. De Concini}, \textit{V. G. Kac} and \textit{C. Procesi} in J. Am. Math. Soc. 5, 151-190 (1992; Zbl 0747.17018)]. Let \({\mathfrak g}\) be a complex finite dimensional simple Lie algebra; fix a triangular decomposition \({\mathfrak g} = {\mathfrak n}_ -\oplus {\mathfrak h} \oplus {\mathfrak n}_ +\) and let \(T\), \(U_ \pm\) be the subgroups of the simply connected group \(G\) with Lie algebra \({\mathfrak g}\) corresponding to \({\mathfrak h}, {\mathfrak n}_ \pm\). Let \(B_ \pm = TU_ \pm\) and let \(H\) be the subgroup of \(B_ -\times B_ +\) consisting of elements of the form \((tu_ - ,t^{-1} u_ +)\); \(H\) is a Poisson algebraic group. Let \(\ell\) be an odd integer, \(\varepsilon\) a primitive \(\ell\)-root of 1, and let \(U_ \varepsilon\) be the quantized enveloping algebra of \({\mathfrak g}\) at \(\varepsilon\). \(U_ \varepsilon\) contains a central Hopf subalgebra \(Z_ 0\) which is isomorphic to the algebra of regular functions on \(H\). One of the key observations of the above mentioned papers is that \(U_ \varepsilon\) is a maximal order in a division algebra of degree \(d\) \((=\ell^ N\), where \(N\) is the number of positive roots); thus one can apply to \(U_ \varepsilon\) general results of the theory of algebras with trace. In particular, all the irreducible representations of \(U_ \varepsilon\) have dimension \(\leq d\). By taking characters, one has a map, say \(\pi\), from the set of irreducible representations of \(U_ \varepsilon\) to \(H\), which is in fact surjective. The main result of this paper is the following: if \(h\in H\) lies in a symplectic leave of maximal dimension, then the fiber \(\pi^{-1}(h)\) contains only one irreducible representation of \(U_ \varepsilon\), which consequently has dimension \(d\). The idea of the proof is to pass to the graded ring of a natural filtration of \(U_ \varepsilon\), which is a twisted polynomial ring. This result gives some evidence to a conjecture of the authors relating the dimension of an irreducible representation \(\rho\) of \(U_ \varepsilon\) to the dimension of the symplectic leave through \(\pi(\rho)\).