Cohomological obstructions and weak crossed products over weak Hopf algebras (Q2675075)

This paper investigates weak crossed products over weak Hopf algebras. Its main result is that a cohomological obstruction determines both the existence of certain weak crossed products and certain cleft extensions. This generalizes classical results for Hopf algebras. A \textit{weak Hopf algebra} in a symmetric monoidal category is an object with an algebra structure and a coalgebra structure satisfying certain compatibility conditions which generalize those of Hopf algebras, but additionally accommodate groupoid algebras, for instance. A \textit{weak \(H\)-module algebra}, for \(H\) a weak Hopf algebra, is an algebra \(B\) with a morphism \(\phi\colon H \otimes B \to B\) satisfying natural compatibility conditions with respect to the algebra structure. For any weak Hopf algebra \(H\), any weak \(H\)-module algebra \((B,\phi)\), and any \(n \ge 1\), there is a binary \textit{convolution} operation on \(\operatorname{Hom}(H^{\otimes n}, B)\) depending on \(\phi\). Groups of convolution-invertible elements form complexes of a (generalized) \textit{Sweedler cohomology}. It is shown that quadruples \((H,B,\phi,\sigma)\) with \(H\), \(B\), \(\phi\) as above and \(\sigma\colon H^{\otimes 2} \to B\) a morphism satisfying a cocycle and a twist condition parameterize \textit{weak crossed products}, certain associative binary operations on the object \(H \otimes B\). It is discussed when these crossed products can be endowed with a \textit{pre-unit}, a structure similar to the unit of an algebra. It is studied when two weak crossed products defined by quadruples as above are equivalent. In the special case where \(H\) is cocommutative and \(\phi\) is convolution-invertible, a distinguished element in degree \(3\) of a Sweedler cohomology involving \(H\) and the center of \(B\) is defined. It is shown that the vanishing of this element in cohomology is equivalent to the existence of a weak crossed product structure on \(H \otimes B\) related to \(\sigma\). It follows using previous results that the same vanishing is equivalent to the existence of a cleft extension of \(B\) by \(H\).