Quantum affine algebra

In mathematics, a quantum affine algebra (or affine quantum group) is a Hopf algebra that is a q-deformation of the universal enveloping algebra of an affine Lie algebra. They were introduced independently by Drinfeld (1985) and Jimbo (1985) as a special case of their general construction of a quantum group from a Cartan matrix. One of their principal applications has been to the theory of solvable lattice models in quantum statistical mechanics, where the Yang–Baxter equation occurs with a spectral parameter. Combinatorial aspects of the representation theory of quantum affine algebras can be described simply using crystal bases, which correspond to the degenerate case when the deformation parameter q vanishes and the Hamiltonian of the associated lattice model can be explicitly diagonalized.

References

Drinfeld, V. G. (1985), "Hopf algebras and the quantum Yang–Baxter equation", Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR, 283 (5): 1060–1064, ISSN 0002-3264, MR 0802128
Drinfeld, V. G. (1987), "A new realization of Yangians and of quantum affine algebras", Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR, 296 (1): 13–17, ISSN 0002-3264, MR 0914215
Frenkel, Igor B.; Reshetikhin, N. Yu. (1992), "Quantum affine algebras and holonomic difference equations", Communications in Mathematical Physics, 146 (1): 1–60, Bibcode:1992CMaPh.146....1F, doi:10.1007/BF02099206, ISSN 0010-3616, MR 1163666, S2CID 119818318
Jimbo, Michio (1985), "A q-difference analogue of U(g) and the Yang-Baxter equation", Letters in Mathematical Physics, 10 (1): 63–69, Bibcode:1985LMaPh..10...63J, doi:10.1007/BF00704588, ISSN 0377-9017, MR 0797001, S2CID 123313856
Jimbo, Michio; Miwa, Tetsuji (1995), Algebraic analysis of solvable lattice models, CBMS Regional Conference Series in Mathematics, vol. 85, Published for the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, Washington, DC, ISBN 978-0-8218-0320-2, MR 1308712