Bialgebras Over Noncommutative Rings and a Structure Theorem for Hopf Bimodules

Abstract

It is a key property of bialgebras that their modules have a natural tensor product. More precisely, a bialgebra over k can be characterized as an algebra H whose category of modules is a monoidal category in such a way that the underlying functor to the category of k-vector spaces is monoidal (i.e. preserves tensor products in a coherent way). In the present paper we study a class of algebras whose module categories are also monoidal categories; however, the underlying functor to the category of k-vector spaces fails to be monoidal. Instead, there is a suitable underlying functor to the category of B-bimodules over a k-algebra B which is monoidal with respect to the tensor product over B. In other words, we study algebras L such that for two L-modules V and W there is a natural tensor product, which is the tensor product V⊗_BW over another k-algebra B, equipped with an L-module structure defined via some kind of comultiplication of L. We show that this property is characteristic for ×_B-bialgebras as studied by Sweedler (for commutative B) and Takeuchi. Our motivating example arises when H is a Hopf algebra and A an H-Galois extension of B. In this situation, one can construct an algebra L:=L(A,H), which was previously shown to be a Hopf algebra if B=k. We show that there is a structure theorem for relative Hopf bimodules in the form of a category equivalence $_A M_A^H \cong {\text{ }}_L M$. The category on the left hand side has a natural structure of monoidal category (with the tensor product over A) which induces the structure of a monoidal category on the right hand side. The ×_B-bialgebra structure of L that corresponds to this monoidal structure generalizes the Hopf algebra structure on L(A,H) known for B=k. We prove several other structure theorems involving L=L(A,H) in the form of category equivalences $^L M \cong ^H M,{\text{ }}_A^L M \cong _k M{\text{, }}_A^L M_A \cong M_H ,{\text{ }}_A^L M^H \cong {\text{ }}M^H {\text{ and }}_A^L M_A^H \cong {\text{ }}YD_H^H$.