A freeness theorem for Nichols algebras (Q1584612)

For \(V\) a vector space and \((V,c)\) a rigid solution of the braid equation, then the quantum symmetric algebra (QSA or \({\mathcal B}(V)\)) constructed from the tensor algebra \(AV\) and the tensor coalgebra \(CV\) is called a Nichols algebra. A Nichols algebra is a braided Hopf algebra in a rigid braided category. Let \(W\subset V\) with \(c(W\otimes W)=W\otimes W\); then the QSA of \(W\) can be identified with a subalgebra of \({\mathcal B}(V)\). The first sections of this paper contain definitions and some results about the Nichols algebras \({\mathcal B}(V)\) and \({\mathcal B}(V^*)\). The main result is proved in Section 3. Let \(V\in{_{k\Gamma}^{k\Gamma}\mathcal{YD}}\) be finite dimensional, where \(\Gamma\) is a group, and let \(W\subset V\) be a \(k\Gamma\)-subcomodule. If \(\Gamma'\) is the smallest subgroup so that \(\delta(W)\subseteq k\Gamma'\otimes W\), suppose \(W\) is stable under the action of \(\Gamma'\). Note then that \(W\in{_{k\Gamma'}^{k\Gamma'}\mathcal{YD}}\) but not necessarily in \(_{k\Gamma}^{k\Gamma}\mathcal{YD}\). Also suppose \(V=W\oplus W'\) where \(W'\) is a \(k\Gamma\)-subcomodule and a \(k\Gamma'\)-submodule and \({\mathcal B}(W)\) is finite dimensional. Then there is a subalgebra \(K\) of \({\mathcal B}(V)\) such that \({\mathcal B}(V)\cong K\otimes{\mathcal B}(W)\) as right \({\mathcal B}(W)\)-modules and left \(K\)-modules. In particular, \(P_{{\mathcal B}(V)}(t)=P_K(t)P_{{\mathcal B}(W)}(t)\) where the Hilbert polynomial \(P_A(t)=\sum^n_{i=0}\dim(A_i)t^i\) for \(A=\bigoplus^n_{i=0}A_i\) a finite dimensional graded space. Thus \(\dim{\mathcal B}(W)\) divides \(\dim{\mathcal B}(V)\). In the last section, the author applies the main theorem to classify pointed Hopf algebras of index \(p\) or \(p^2\), where \(p\) is a prime.