Coideal subalgebras in quantum affine algebras

Abstract

We introduce two subalgebras in the type A quantum affine algebra which are coideals with respect to the Hopf algebra structure. In the classical limit q -> 1 each subalgebra specializes to the enveloping algebra U(k), where k is a fixed point subalgebra of the loop algebra over gl_N with respect to a natural involution corresponding to the embedding of the orthogonal or symplectic Lie algebra into gl_N. We also give an equivalent presentation of these coideal subalgebras in terms of generators and defining relations which have the form of reflection-type equations. We provide evaluation homomorphisms from these algebras to the twisted quantized enveloping algebras introduced earlier by Gavrilik and Klimyk and by Noumi. We also construct an analog of the quantum determinant for each of the algebras and show that its coefficients belong to the center of the algebra. Their images under the evaluation homomorphism provide a family of central elements of the corresponding twisted quantized enveloping algebra.