Lie bialgebra

In mathematics, a Lie bialgebra is the Lie-theoretic case of a bialgebra: it is a set with a Lie algebra and a Lie coalgebra structure which are compatible.

It is a bialgebra where the multiplication is skew-symmetric and satisfies a dual Jacobi identity, so that the dual vector space is a Lie algebra, whereas the comultiplication is a 1-cocycle, so that the multiplication and comultiplication are compatible. The cocycle condition implies that, in practice, one studies only classes of bialgebras that are cohomologous to a Lie bialgebra on a coboundary.

They are also called Poisson-Hopf algebras, and are the Lie algebra of a Poisson–Lie group.

Lie bialgebras occur naturally in the study of the Yang–Baxter equations.

Definition

A vector space ${\mathfrak {g}}$ is a Lie bialgebra if it is a Lie algebra, and there is the structure of Lie algebra also on the dual vector space ${\mathfrak {g}}^{*}$ which is compatible. More precisely the Lie algebra structure on ${\mathfrak {g}}$ is given by a Lie bracket $[\ ,\ ]:{\mathfrak {g}}\otimes {\mathfrak {g}}\to {\mathfrak {g}}$ and the Lie algebra structure on ${\mathfrak {g}}^{*}$ is given by a Lie bracket $\delta ^{*}:{\mathfrak {g}}^{*}\otimes {\mathfrak {g}}^{*}\to {\mathfrak {g}}^{*}$. Then the map dual to $\delta ^{*}$ is called the cocommutator, $\delta :{\mathfrak {g}}\to {\mathfrak {g}}\otimes {\mathfrak {g}}$ and the compatibility condition is the following cocycle relation:

$\delta ([X,Y])=\left(\operatorname {ad} _{X}\otimes 1+1\otimes \operatorname {ad} _{X}\right)\delta (Y)-\left(\operatorname {ad} _{Y}\otimes 1+1\otimes \operatorname {ad} _{Y}\right)\delta (X)$

where $\operatorname {ad} _{X}Y=[X,Y]$ is the adjoint. Note that this definition is symmetric and ${\mathfrak {g}}^{*}$ is also a Lie bialgebra, the dual Lie bialgebra.

Example

Let ${\mathfrak {g}}$ be any semisimple Lie algebra. To specify a Lie bialgebra structure we thus need to specify a compatible Lie algebra structure on the dual vector space. Choose a Cartan subalgebra ${\mathfrak {t}}\subset {\mathfrak {g}}$ and a choice of positive roots. Let ${\mathfrak {b}}_{\pm }\subset {\mathfrak {g}}$ be the corresponding opposite Borel subalgebras, so that ${\mathfrak {t}}={\mathfrak {b}}_{-}\cap {\mathfrak {b}}_{+}$ and there is a natural projection $\pi :{\mathfrak {b}}_{\pm }\to {\mathfrak {t}}$. Then define a Lie algebra

${\mathfrak {g'}}:=\{(X_{-},X_{+})\in {\mathfrak {b}}_{-}\times {\mathfrak {b}}_{+}\ {\bigl \vert }\ \pi (X_{-})+\pi (X_{+})=0\}$

which is a subalgebra of the product ${\mathfrak {b}}_{-}\times {\mathfrak {b}}_{+}$, and has the same dimension as ${\mathfrak {g}}$. Now identify ${\mathfrak {g'}}$ with dual of ${\mathfrak {g}}$ via the pairing

$\langle (X_{-},X_{+}),Y\rangle :=K(X_{+}-X_{-},Y)$

where $Y\in {\mathfrak {g}}$ and $K$ is the Killing form. This defines a Lie bialgebra structure on ${\mathfrak {g}}$, and is the "standard" example: it underlies the Drinfeld-Jimbo quantum group. Note that ${\mathfrak {g'}}$ is solvable, whereas ${\mathfrak {g}}$ is semisimple.

Relation to Poisson–Lie groups

The Lie algebra ${\mathfrak {g}}$ of a Poisson–Lie group G has a natural structure of Lie bialgebra. In brief the Lie group structure gives the Lie bracket on ${\mathfrak {g}}$ as usual, and the linearisation of the Poisson structure on G gives the Lie bracket on ${\mathfrak {g^{*}}}$ (recalling that a linear Poisson structure on a vector space is the same thing as a Lie bracket on the dual vector space). In more detail, let G be a Poisson–Lie group, with $f_{1},f_{2}\in C^{\infty }(G)$ being two smooth functions on the group manifold. Let $\xi =(df)_{e}$ be the differential at the identity element. Clearly, $\xi \in {\mathfrak {g}}^{*}$. The Poisson structure on the group then induces a bracket on ${\mathfrak {g}}^{*}$, as

$[\xi _{1},\xi _{2}]=(d\{f_{1},f_{2}\})_{e}\,$

where $\{,\}$ is the Poisson bracket. Given $\eta$ be the Poisson bivector on the manifold, define $\eta ^{R}$ to be the right-translate of the bivector to the identity element in G. Then one has that

$\eta ^{R}:G\to {\mathfrak {g}}\otimes {\mathfrak {g}}$

The cocommutator is then the tangent map:

$\delta =T_{e}\eta ^{R}\,$

so that

$[\xi _{1},\xi _{2}]=\delta ^{*}(\xi _{1}\otimes \xi _{2})$

is the dual of the cocommutator.

See also

• Lie coalgebra
• Manin triple

References

• H.-D. Doebner, J.-D. Hennig, eds, Quantum groups, Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Mathematical Physics, Arnold Sommerfeld Institute, Claausthal, FRG, 1989, Springer-Verlag Berlin, ISBN 3-540-53503-9.
• Vyjayanthi Chari and Andrew Pressley, A Guide to Quantum Groups, (1994), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge ISBN 0-521-55884-0.
• Beisert, N.; Spill, F. (2009). "The classical r-matrix of AdS/CFT and its Lie bialgebra structure". Communications in Mathematical Physics. 285 (2): 537–565. arXiv:0708.1762. Bibcode:2009CMaPh.285..537B. doi:10.1007/s00220-008-0578-2. S2CID 8946457.