Classification on irreducible Whittaker modules over quantum group \(U_q(\mathfrak{sl}_3,\Lambda)\) (Q2239349)

Whittaker modules for a simple finite-dimensional complex Lie algebra \(\mathfrak{g}\) have close connections with the center \(Z\) of \(U(\mathfrak{g})\). That is, there is a bijection between the set of all equivalence classes of Whittaker modules and the set of all ideals in \(Z\), and irreducible Whittaker modules correspond to maximal ideals of \(Z\) under this bijection. Whittaker modules for \(U_q(\mathfrak{sl}_2)\) have been extensively studied, but for \(U_q(\mathfrak{g})\), where \(\mathfrak{g}\not= \mathfrak{sl}_2\), there is an obstruction to construct Whittaker modules. The subalgebras \(U_q(\mathfrak{n}_+)\subset U_q(\mathfrak{g})\), for \(\mathfrak{g}\not= \mathfrak{sl}_2\), generated by positive root vectors and subject to the quantum Serre relations do not have nonsingular characters. Savostyanov overcame this obstruction by considering the topological Hopf algebra \(U_h(\mathfrak{g})\) over \(\mathbb{C}[[h]]\). He used the Coxeter realization \(U_h^{s_{\pi}}(\mathfrak{g})\) of the quantum group \(U_h(\mathfrak{g})\) corresponding to the Coxeter element \(s_{\pi}\) and showed that the subalgebras \(U_h^{s_{\pi}}(\mathfrak{n}_+)\subset U_h^{s_{\pi}}(\mathfrak{g})\) generated by positive root vectors do indeed possess nonsingular characters. The present authors define the Whittaker modules over the simply-connected quantum group \(U_q(\mathfrak{sl}_3,\Lambda)\), where \(\Lambda\) is the weight lattice of the Lie algebra \(\mathfrak{sl}_3\), and then they completely classify all those simple ones. That is, a simple Whittaker module over \(U_q(\mathfrak{sl}_3,\Lambda)\) is either a highest weight module, or determined by two parameters \(z\in \mathbb{C}\) and \(\gamma\in \mathbb{C}^*\), up to a Hopf automorphism (see Theorem 1, page 1091, and Theorem 2, page 1092).