Gebras (Q1313392)

The title is a joke: The objects of study in these notes are coalgebras (and their comodules), bialgebras and Hopf algebras. The aim, starting from the definitions, is to take the reader as far as the existence of the envelope of a group \(\Gamma\) relative to a saturated category of finite-dimensional \(\Gamma\)-modules, and to apply this to the cases of compact groups and of complex reductive Lie groups. Published here for the first time, these notes were prepared for Bourbaki in 1968. Perhaps in consequence of the age of the notes and their group-theoretic motivation, the bialgebras treated herein are assumed to be commutative; consequently they may not be ideal as a primer for the study of bialgebras in relation to quantum groups. Nevertheless, being written in the precise yet light and witty style characteristic of their author, they are a pleasure to read.