A new characterisation of principal actions (Q1568540)

In the context of the researches concerning the simplification of the computation of the index of transversely elliptic operators on a foliation (Connes's and Moscovici's researches, specially), the difficulties have now been resolved thanks to the discovery of a canonical Hopf algebra \(H_n\) which depends only on the codimension of the foliatiation and acts naturally on its transverse frame bundle [see \textit{A. Connes} and \textit{H. Moscovici}, Commun. Math. Phys. 198, No. 1, 199-246 (1998; Zbl 0940.58005)]. The subject of the present paper is related to the problem to find a suitable modification of these techniques which can be applied in the context of quantum field theory. The first problem that arises in this program is to find a suitable notion of frame bundle over an abstract noncommutative manifold. Since the frame bundle is a particular type of principal bundle, the author defines a notion of principal group action in noncommutative geometry through consideration of a certain bimodule morphism. The author and the reviewer considered this definition both completely general and immediately applicable. Indeed, the author proves that the dual coaction associated to a Kac system is principal in this generalized sense and some simple noncommutative examples are considered.