A class of Drinfeld doubles that are ribbon algebras. (Q950218)

It is well known that ribbon Hopf algebras give rise to ribbon categories. A ribbon Hopf algebra is a quasitriangular Hopf algebra which possesses an invertible central element known as the ribbon element. Quantum groups of Drinfeld and Jimbo, the restricted two parameter quantum groups \(u_{r,s}(sl_n)\) under certain compatibility conditions between the parameters \(r\) and \(s\) are ribbon algebras. Kauffman and Radford showed that the Drinfeld double of some Taft algebra has a ribbon element, which provides an important invariant of \(3\)-manifolds. On the other hand, lifting methods raised by Andruskiewitsch and Schneider can be used to construct pointed Hopf algebras. Some family of pointed Hopf algebras are liftings of Radford's biproducts of Nichols algebras with group algebras. Andruskiewitsch and Schneider showed that, under some restrictions on the group order, all finite dimensional pointed Hopf algebras having an Abelian group of grouplike elements are this type of liftings. In the paper under review the author provides a new class of Drinfeld doubles which possess ribbon elements. They are the Drinfeld doubles of a family of pointed Hopf algebras, which are liftings of Radford's biproducts of Nichols algebras with group algebras, constructed by Andruskiewitsch and Schneider. The definition by generators and relations of these pointed Hopf algebras is very similar to that of quantum groups and it includes Lusztig's small quantum groups.