Modular invariant Frobenius algebras from ribbon Hopf algebra automorphisms. (Q1938529)

For a finite-dimensional factorizable ribbon Hopf algebra \(H\) (which is not necessarily semisimple) consider the category of \(H\)-bimodules as a braided monoidal category by using the pullback of the natural \(H\otimes H\)-bimodule structure on the tensor product of two \(H\)-bimodules over the ground field along the coproduct of \(H\). Moreover, let \(K\) denote the Hopf algebra object in the category of \(H\)-bimodules arising in \textit{V. V. Lyubashenko}'s construction of a projective representation of the mapping class group \(\Gamma_{1;1}\) of a one-punctured torus on the space \(\Hom_{H|H}(K,X)\) of \(H\)-bimodule homomorphisms from \(K\) to some \(H\)-bimodule \(X\) [Commun. Math. Phys. 172, No. 3, 467-516 (1995; Zbl 0844.57016)]. Then the main result of the paper under review states that, over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, for every automorphism \(\omega\) of \(H\) as a ribbon Hopf algebra (i.e., for every Hopf algebra automorphism \(\omega\) of \(H\) that preserves the \(R\)-matrix and the ribbon element of \(H\)), there exist an \(H\)-bimodule \(F_\omega\) and an \(H\)-bimodule homomorphism \(Z_\omega\) from \(K\) to \(F_\omega\) that is invariant under the above action of the mapping class group \(\Gamma_{1;1}\). Here the object \(F_\omega\) is a commutative and symmetric Frobenius algebra in the category of \(H\)-bimodules, and the \(\Gamma_{1;1}\)-invariant morphism \(Z_\omega\) is constructed using the coproduct of \(F_\omega\). Furthermore, \(F_\omega\) is special (i.e., up to non-zero scalars, the counit is a left inverse of the unit, and the coproduct is a right inverse of the product) if, and only if, \(H\) is semisimple. These results are motivated by certain two-dimensional conformal field theories based on non-semisimple representation categories which are important in statistical physics.