A necessary and sufficient condition for a finite-dimensional Drinfel'd double to be a ribbon Hopf algebra (Q687619)

The authors find a necessary and sufficient condition for the Drinfeld double \((D(A),R)\) of a finite-dimensional Hopf algebra \(A\) over a field to have a ribbon element. The condition is related to Radford's formula for \(S^ 4\), \(S\) the antipode of \(A\), namely that \(S^ 4(a) = g(\alpha \rightharpoonup a \leftharpoonup \alpha^{-1})g^{-1}\), where \(g\) and \(\alpha\) are certain well-defined group-like elements of \(A\) and \(A^*\) respectively. Then \((D(A),R)\) has a ribbon element if and only if \(S^ 2(a) = h(\beta \rightharpoonup a \leftharpoonup \beta^{-1}) h^{-1}\), where \(h\) and \(\beta\) are group-like elements of \(A\) and \(A^*\) respectively, such that \(h^ 2 = g\) and \(\beta^ 2 = \alpha\). This extends considerably the class of such doubles which are known to have a ribbon element. In particular, they analyze a class of Hopf algebras \(A_ n\) constructed by the reviewer [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 68, 2631-2633 (1971; Zbl 0222.16012)]. It turns out that \((D(A_ n),R)\) has a ribbon element if and only if \(n\) is odd, and in this case, the ribbon element is unique.