An algebraic characterization of the affine canonical basis (Q1974952)

The canonical basis of the quantized universal enveloping algebra associated to a simple finite dimensional Lie algebra was introduced by \textit{G. Lusztig} [J. Am. Math. Soc. 3, 447-498 (1990; Zbl 0703.17008)] via an elementary algebraic definition, characterized by three main components. This algebraic definition does not work for quantized universal enveloping algebras of arbitrary Kac-Moody algebras. In this paper, the authors synthesize the two aforementioned techniques and construct a crystal basis for the quantized universal enveloping algebra of untwisted affine type, and then give an elementary algebraic characterization of the canonical basis analogous to the characterization given in the finite-type case (loc. cit.). A remarkable feature of the authors construction is that the part of the crystal basis corresponding to the imaginary root spaces is given by Schur functions in the Heisenberg generators.