Factorizable sheaves and quantum groups (Q1392301)

From MaRDI portal
scientific article
Language Label Description Also known as
English
Factorizable sheaves and quantum groups
scientific article

    Statements

    Factorizable sheaves and quantum groups (English)
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    28 July 1998
    0 references
    Since the appearance of quantum groups, there were several attempts to provide ``geometric'' or ``topological'' constructions of these mathematical objects. The book under review belongs to this trend; it can be considered as a continuation of [\textit{V. Schechtman} and \textit{A. Varchenko}, Quantum groups and homology of local systems, in: Algebraic geometry and analytic geometry, ICM-90 Satell. Conf. Proc., 182-197 (1991; Zbl 0760.17014)]. Let \(A\) be a finite Cartan matrix, let \(l\) be a positive integer satisfying suitable technical hypothesis with respect to \(A\); let \({\mathbf k}\) be a field such that char \({\mathbf k}\) is not divisible by \(l\), and contains a primitive \(l\)-th root of 1 \(\zeta\). Let \({\mathfrak u}\) be the small quantum group (also called Frobenius-Lusztig kernel by some authors) attached to \(A\), \({\mathbf k}\), \(\zeta\). There is a triangular decomposition \({\mathfrak u}= {\mathfrak u}^+ {\mathfrak u}^0{\mathfrak u}^-\); \({\mathfrak u}^0\) is the group algebra of the group-like elements of \({\mathfrak u}\). Let \(\mathcal C\) be the category of finite dimensional \({\mathfrak u}\) where \({\mathfrak u}^0\) ``acts by powers of \(\zeta\)''. By results of Kazhdan, Lusztig and the authors, \(\mathcal C\) is a rigid balanced tensor category, or ribbon category in the terminology of Turaev. The main result of this book is the identification of the ribbon category \(\mathcal C\) with a category arising from the topology of configuration spaces. Specifically, the authors introduce the notion of ``factorizable sheaf''; this is a compatible collection of perverse sheaves over configuration spaces, in a suitable sense. The category \(\mathcal{FS}\) of factorizable sheaves has a structure of tensor category and the authors show that \(\mathcal{FS}\) is isomorphic to \(\mathcal{C}\) as tensor category. Then they offer global versions of this result, placing sheaves into points of an arbitrary algebraic curve.
    0 references
    braided categories
    0 references
    quantum groups
    0 references
    configuration spaces
    0 references

    Identifiers

    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references
    0 references