Courant brackets on noncommutative algebras and omni-Lie algebras (Q2454946)

\textit{T. J. Courant} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 319, 631--661 (1990; Zbl 0850.70212] defined a certain bracket on the set of sections of the tangent bundle \(TM \oplus TM^*\) for a smooth manifold \(M\). In this paper, a similarly-looking bracket is defined in a purely algebraic situation, on the space \(E(A) = H^1(A,A) \oplus H_1(A,A)\), where \(H^1\), resp. \(H_1\), denotes the first Hochschild cohomology, resp. homology of an associative algebra \(A\). A canonical pairing between \(H^1(A,A)\) and \(H_1(A,A)\) induces a bilinear form on \(E(A)\), and the kernel of this form happens to be an ideal with respect to the Courant bracket. The quotient of \(E(A)\) by this ideal, with the induced Courant bracket on it, is called a Dirac structure on \(A\). In the case \(A = V \oplus K1\), where multiplication on \(V\) is trivial, the Dirac structure reduces to the \textit{A. Weinstein}'s omni-Lie algebra defined on the space \(gl(V) \oplus V\) [RIMS Kokyuroku 1176, 95--102 (2000; Zbl 1058.58503)]. It is proved that Dirac structures on any unital associative algebra \(A\) and the algebra of matrices of arbitrary size over \(A\) are isomorphic. Dirac structures are also connected with commutative and noncommutative Poisson structures.