The cobar resolution and a restricted deformation theory for Drinfeld algebras (Q1337433)

A Drinfeld algebra \(A\) is an object akin to bialgebra but where the comultiplication is only associative up to conjugacy by an element \(\Phi\in A\otimes A\otimes A\). This is exactly the structure needed to turn the category of modules over \(A\) into a monoidal one. One of Drinfeld's major results is an existence and uniqueness theorem for deformations of the universal enveloping algebra of a simple Lie algebra within the class of Drinfeld-Hopf algebras. Recently, the first author gave an alternative proof of a variant of Drinfeld's uniqueness result based on the Gerstenhaber-Schack theory of bialgebra deformations. All these theorems deal with the deformation of a classical (associative and coassociative) bialgebra within the class of Drinfeld algebras. The purpose of this paper to make first steps towards the creation of a deformation theory starting from a general Drinfeld algebra. The authors describe the generalization of the cobar resolution to Drinfeld algebras and show how to use the cobar complex to study deformations of Drinfeld algebras where the multiplication and comultiplication are undeformed and deformation takes place in the \(\Phi\). This result is also of its own independent interest because the first author showed earlier that every deformation of the universal envelope of a simple Lie algebra is equivalent to one in which only the \(\Phi\) is deformed. This work should be regarded as parallel to the recent work of \textit{M. Markl} and \textit{J. D. Stasheff} [J. Algebra 170, 122-155 (1994) or Proc. Winter School Geom. Top., Suppl. Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo, II. Ser. 32, 97-124 (1994)]. Some kind of homotopy bimodule structure on the bar complex is described in a forthcoming article by \textit{M. Markl} and \textit{S. Shnider} [Int. Math. Res. Not. 1994, No. 4, 169-176 (1994)].