Skew-braces and \(q\)-braces (Q6085850)

The present article is devoted to the study of \(q\)-braces and their relationship with skew-braces. A \(q\)-brace is a group \((A,\circ)\) endowed with two extra operations \(\cdot\) and \(:\) which give rise to a left non-degenerate solution of the Yang-Baxter equation (as the reader can imagine, the three operations must satisfy certain compatibility conditions). These structures where introduced by the author in previous works, see for instance [J. Algebra 520, 136--170 (2019; Zbl 1450.16024)]. A preliminary section on \(q\)-braces is included. Here the main contributions are: distinct new characterizations of \(q\)-braces, the development of a ``bi-crossed product'' method to construct \(q\)-braces and the introduction of the universal \(q\)-brace. The highlighted characterization is related to modules over skew-braces