Generalized braided quantum groups (Q1360002)

The main idea of noncommutative geometry is that geometry and geometric operations can still be conducted by working solely with the associated space of functions, considered as a *-algebra (classical Gel'fand-Naimark theorem), and that while a classical space will lead to a commutative algebra of functions, an interesting and worthwhile extension is given by the consideration of the algebraic analogues of operations when the starting algebras are noncommutative, such algebras being said to define noncommutative (quantum) spaces. The basic noncommutative algebra in this sense is the quantum group, an associative algebra \(\mathcal{A}\) along with compatible coassociative coalgebra structure \((\phi,\varepsilon)\) (comultiplication, counit) and antipode \(\kappa:{\mathcal{A}}\to {\mathcal{A}}\); the compatibility conditions being muliplicativity of the comultiplication and the antipode property of form \(m(\text{id}\otimes\kappa)\phi=1\varepsilon=m(\kappa\otimes\text{id})\phi\). A natural generalisation of the notion of group structure on a noncommutative space led, in work of \textit{S. Majid}, to the concept of a braided quantum group [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 86, 187-221 (1993; Zbl 0797.17004)], in which the multiplicativity of the comultiplication is adjusted by there being defined a non-trivial twisted algebraic structure on \({\mathcal{A}}\times{\mathcal{A}}\), namely a multiplication \((m\otimes{m})(\text{id}\otimes\sigma\otimes\text{id})\), in terms of a braiding \(\sigma:{\mathcal{A}}\otimes{\mathcal{A}}\to {\mathcal{A}}\otimes{\mathcal{A}}\). Extra axioms appear ensuring compatibility of the braiding with both the muliplication and comultiplication. Classically, the ``points'' of a space correspond to characters of the associated algebra, and a quantum space in this sense, arising from an algebra which forms a quantum group or even a braided quantum group, will automatically possess at least one point, namely corresponding to the counit. The current paper defines a generalised notion of braided quantum groups, in which is no longer a guaranteed classical ``point'', the interaction of the braiding with the comultiplication being weakened from that of Majid's definition, so as to produce an asymmetry with that of the interaction of \(\sigma\) with the muliplication. Starting from the definition, basic properties of the interaction of the data involved in a generalised braided quantum group, are investigated. In particular, another `flip' operator, \(\tau\), on \({\mathcal{A}}\otimes{\mathcal{A}}\) naturally appears, and it is seen that \(\sigma\) and \(\tau\) satisfy all the `mixed' Yang-Baxter type braid relations \(A_{12}B_{23}C_{12}=C_{23}B_{12}A_{23}\) where \(A\), \(B\) and \(C\) are independently chosen to be \(\sigma\) or \(\tau\). An appendix views this situation as the special case of a general braid system, in which there is a whole system of bijective linear maps like \(\sigma\), satisfying amongst themselves all possible `mixed' Yang-Baxter relations. Three special cases of the notions of the paper are noted: (a) the case of \(\sigma=\tau\) recovers Majid's version of braided quantum groups; (b) braided Clifford algebras with \(\sigma^2=1\) give rise to examples including classical Clifford and Weyl algebras; and (c) quantum tori [see \textit{A. Connes}, Publ. Math., Inst. Hautes Étud. Sci. 62, 257-360 (1985; Zbl 0592.46056)].