Rota-Baxter algebras and dendriform algebras. (Q2457278)

A Rota-Baxter algebra is an algebra \(A\) with a linear endomorphism \(R\) satisfying \(R(x)R(y)=R(R(x)y)+R(xR(y))+wR(xy)\), where \(w\) is a fixed element of the base ring. \(A\) and \(R\) are said to be of weight \(w\). Rota-Baxter algebras have turned out to be related to many areas of mathematics and physics, in particular to dendriform dialgebras and trialgebras. A dendriform dialgebra has 2 binary operations satisfying 3 relations, whereas a dendriform trialgebra has 3 binary operations satisfying 7 relations. In both cases, the sum of the binary operations gives an associative structure. This paper constructs adjoint functors between the category of Rota-Baxter algebras and the categories of dendriform dialgebras and trialgebras, which are analogous to the adjoint functors between the category of associative algebras and that of Lie algebras. The first author had shown that a Rota-Baxter algebra of weight \(w\) also carries a dendriform dialgebra and a dendriform trialgebra structure [Lett. Math. Phys. 61, No. 2, 139-147 (2002; Zbl 1035.17001)]. The paper under review constructs adjoint functors in the other direction. To start, they construct various free Rota-Baxter algebras, in particular the non-unitary one over an algebra \(A\) (which is a free module over the base ring). They do this using appropriate ``words'', although it can also be done using trees or shuffles. To construct the adjoint functors, for a dendriform dialgebra \(D\) (respectively dendriform trialgebra \(T\)), they first take the free non-unitary Rota-Baxter algebra on \(D\) (respectively \(T\)), and factor out a suitable Rota-Baxter ideal. The result is the universal Rota-Baxter algebra of \(D\) (respectively \(T\)) in the usual sense. In a final section, they show that free dendriform dialgebras and trialgebras are subalgebras of free Rota-Baxter algebras, by representing them in terms of trees.