On the Frobenius-Schur indicators for quasi-Hopf algebras. (Q1888806)

For a finite group \(G\) and \(V\) an irreducible representation of \(G\) the classical Frobenius-Schur theorem gives an indicator which shows if \(V\) falls into one and only one of the cases: either it is not self-dual, or there is a nondegenerate invariant bilinear form on \(V\) that is symmetric, respectively skew-symmetric. This has been generalized by Linchenko and Montgomery to irreducible representations of a semisimple Hopf algebra and by Mason and Ng to the case of a semisimple quasi-Hopf algebra. The author presents a new short proof for the generalized result of Mason and Ng on the Frobenius-Schur indicator, not involving too many computations and/but also going around a series of results obtained by the two authors. The proof is based on the observation (also present before in the literature in the case of simple Hopf algebras) that the Frobenius-Schur indicator can be written as the trace of a certain endomorphism of the invariant subspace of \(V\otimes V\).