Commutative matching Rota-Baxter operators, shuffle products with decorations and matching Zinbiel algebras (Q2049380)

Fix a unitary commutative associative ring \(\mathbf{k}\). A Rota-Baxter algebra is a commutative associative algebra \(R\) over \(\mathbf{k}\) together with a \(\mathbf{k}\)-linear operator \(P: R \longrightarrow R\) satisfying the so-called \textit{Rota-Baxter} identity for \(f, g\) in \(R\): \[ P(f)P(g) = P(fP(g)) + P(P(f)g). \] This is a special case of a more general definition in the paper. We make this simplification in the review because the main results of the paper deal with the special case. As a pioneering example, the ring \(\mathrm{Cont}(\mathbb{R})\) of continuous functions on \(\mathbb{R}\) is a Rota-Baxter algebra over \(\mathbb{R}\), with the operator \(P\) defined by the Riemann integral for \(f \in \mathrm{Cont}(\mathbb{R})\) and \(x \in \mathbb{R}\): \[ (P(f))(x) := \int_0^x f(t)\, dt. \] Let \(\Omega\) be an index set. A matching Rota-Baxter algebra with respect to \(\Omega\) is a commutative associative algebra \(R\) together with a family of linear operators \(P_{\alpha}: R \longrightarrow R\) indexed by \(\alpha \in \Omega\) such that for \(x, y\) in \(R\) and \(\alpha, \beta\) in \(\Omega\) we have: \[ P_{\alpha}(x) P_{\beta}(y) = P_{\alpha}(xP_{\beta}(y)) + P_{\beta}(P_{\alpha}(x)y). \] Each pair \((R, P_{\alpha})\) for a fixed \(\alpha\) forms an ordinary Rota-Baxter algebra. If \((R, P)\) is a Rota-Baxter algebra and \((g_{\alpha})_{\alpha \in \Omega}\) is a family of elements of \(R\), then we can equip \(R\) with a structure of matching Rota-Baxter algebra by setting \(P_{\alpha}(f) := P(g_{\alpha} f)\) for \(\alpha \in \Omega\) and \(f \in R\). Let \(\mathbf{CAlg}_{\mathbf{k}}\) denote the category of commutative associative algebras over \(\mathbf{k}\) and \(\mathbf{MRBA}_{\mathbf{k},\Omega}\) denote the category of matching Rota-Baxter algebras. By definition we have a forgetful functor \(\mathcal{F}: \mathbf{MRBA}_{\mathbf{k},\Omega} \longrightarrow \mathbf{CAlg}_{\mathbf{k}}\). One of the main results of this paper is an explicit construction, via \textit{shuffle product}, of a functor \(\mathcal{G}: \mathbf{CAlg}_{\mathbf{k}} \longrightarrow \mathbf{MRBA}_{\mathbf{k},\Omega}\) left adjoint to \(\mathcal{F}\). In more details, for \(A\) a commutative associative algebra, \(\mathcal{G}(A)\) is the tensor product algebra of \(A\) with the shuffle algebra associated to the \(\mathbf{k}\)-module \(\mathbf{k}\Omega \otimes A\), which is naturally a matching Rota-Baxter algebra. The authors also extend this result to the relative setting. Fix an object \(X\) of \(\mathbf{MRBA}_{\mathbf{k},\Omega}\) and let \(\mathcal{C}_X\) denote the category of morphisms \(X \longrightarrow Y\) in \(\mathbf{MRBA}_{\mathbf{k},\Omega}\). Then the forgetful functor \(\mathcal{C}_X \longrightarrow \mathbf{CAlg}_{\mathbf{k}}\) sending a morphism \(X \longrightarrow Y\) to \(\mathcal{F}(Y)\) is shown to admit an explicit left adjoint.