Frobenius algebra
In mathematics, especially in the fields of representation theory and module theory, a Frobenius algebra is a finite-dimensional unital associative algebra with a special kind of bilinear form which gives the algebras particularly nice duality theories. Frobenius algebras began to be studied in the 1930s by Richard Brauer and Cecil Nesbitt and were named after Ferdinand Frobenius. Tadashi Nakayama discovered the beginnings of a rich duality theory,. Jean Dieudonné used this to characterize Frobenius algebras. Frobenius algebras were generalized to quasi-Frobenius rings, those Noetherian rings whose right regular representation is injective. In recent times, interest has been renewed in Frobenius algebras due to connections to topological quantum field theory.
Definition
A finite-dimensional, unital, associative algebra A defined over a field k is said to be a Frobenius algebra if A is equipped with a nondegenerate bilinear form σ:A × A → k that satisfies the following equation: σ=σ. This bilinear form is called the Frobenius form of the algebra.Equivalently, one may equip A with a linear functional λ : A → k such that the kernel of λ contains no nonzero left ideal of A.
A Frobenius algebra is called symmetric if σ is symmetric, or equivalently λ satisfies λ = λ.
There is also a different, mostly unrelated notion of the symmetric algebra of a vector space.
Examples
- Any matrix algebra defined over a field k is a Frobenius algebra with Frobenius form σ=tr where tr denotes the trace.
- Any finite-dimensional unital associative algebra A has a natural homomorphism to its own endomorphism ring End. A bilinear form can be defined on A in the sense of the previous example. If this bilinear form is nondegenerate, then it equips A with the structure of a Frobenius algebra.
- Every group ring of a finite group over a field is a Frobenius algebra, with Frobenius form σ the coefficient of the identity element in a·b. This is a special case of example 2.
- For a field k, the four-dimensional k-algebra k/ is a Frobenius algebra. This follows from the characterization of commutative local Frobenius rings below, since this ring is a local ring with its maximal ideal generated by x and y, and unique minimal ideal generated by xy.
- For a field k, the three-dimensional k-algebra A=k/ 2 is not a Frobenius algebra. The A homomorphism from xA into A induced by x ↦ y cannot be extended to an A homomorphism from A into A, showing that the ring is not self-injective, thus not Frobenius.
- Any finite-dimensional Hopf algebra, by a 1969 theorem of Larson-Sweedler on Hopf modules and integrals.
Properties
- The direct product and tensor product of Frobenius algebras are Frobenius algebras.
- A finite-dimensional commutative local algebra over a field is Frobenius if and only if the right regular module is injective, if and only if the algebra has a unique minimal ideal.
- Commutative, local Frobenius algebras are precisely the zero-dimensional local Gorenstein rings containing their residue field and finite-dimensional over it.
- Frobenius algebras are quasi-Frobenius rings, and in particular, they are left and right Artinian and left and right self-injective.
- For a field k, a finite-dimensional, unital, associative algebra is Frobenius if and only if the injective right A-module Homk is isomorphic to the right regular representation of A.
- For an infinite field k, a finite-dimensional, unitial, associative k-algebra is a Frobenius algebra if it has only finitely many minimal right ideals.
- If F is a finite-dimensional extension field of k, then a finite-dimensional F-algebra is naturally a finite-dimensional k-algebra via restriction of scalars, and is a Frobenius F-algebra if and only if it is a Frobenius k-algebra. In other words, the Frobenius property does not depend on the field, as long as the algebra remains a finite-dimensional algebra.
- Similarly, if F is a finite-dimensional extension field of k, then every k-algebra A gives rise naturally to a F algebra, F ⊗k A, and A is a Frobenius k-algebra if and only if F ⊗k A is a Frobenius F-algebra.
- Amongst those finite-dimensional, unital, associative algebras whose right regular representation is injective, the Frobenius algebras A are precisely those whose simple modules M have the same dimension as their A-duals, HomA. Amongst these algebras, the A-duals of simple modules are always simple.
Category-theoretical definition
such that
- is a monoid object in C,
- is a comonoid object in C,
- the diagrams
commute and are known as Frobenius conditions.
More compactly, a Frobenius algebra in C is a so-called Frobenius monoidal functor A:1 → C, where 1 is the category consisting of one object and one arrow.
A Frobenius algebra is called isometric or special if.
Applications
Frobenius algebras originally were studied as part of an investigation into the representation theory of finite groups, and have contributed to the study of number theory, algebraic geometry, and combinatorics. They have been used to study Hopf algebras, coding theory, and cohomology rings of compact oriented manifolds.Topological quantum field theories
Recently, it has been seen that they play an important role in the algebraic treatment and axiomatic foundation of topological quantum field theory. A commutative Frobenius algebra determines uniquely a -dimensional TQFT. More precisely, the category of commutative Frobenius K-algebras is equivalent to the category of symmetric strong monoidal functors from 2-Cob to VectK.The correspondence between TQFTs and Frobenius algebras is given as follows:
- 1-dimensional manifolds are disjoint unions of circles: a TQFT associates a vector space with a circle, and the tensor product of vector spaces with a disjoint union of circles,
- a TQFT associates to each cobordism between manifolds a map between vector spaces,
- the map associated with a pair of pants gives a product map V ⊗ V → V or a coproduct map V → V ⊗ V, depending on how the boundary components are grouped – which is commutative or cocommutative, and
- the map associated with a disk gives a counit or unit, depending on grouping of boundary.
Generalization: Frobenius extension
Let B be a subring sharing the identity element of a unital associative ring A. This is also known as ring extension A | B. Such a ring extension is called Frobenius if- There is a linear mapping E: A → B satisfying the bimodule condition E = bEc for all b,c ∈ B and a ∈ A.
- There are elements in A denoted and such that for all a ∈ A we have:
For example, a Frobenius algebra A over a commutative ring K, with associative nondegenerate bilinear form and projective K-bases is a Frobenius extension A | K with E =. Other examples of Frobenius extensions are pairs of group algebras associated to a subgroup of finite index, Hopf subalgebras of a semisimple Hopf algebra, Galois extensions and certain von Neumann algebra subfactors of finite index. Another source of examples of Frobenius extensions are certain subalgebra pairs of Frobenius algebras, where the subalgebra is stabilized by the symmetrizing automorphism of the overalgebra.
The details of the group ring example are the following application of elementary notions in group theory. Let G be a group and H a subgroup of finite index n in G; let g1,..., gn. be left coset representatives, so that G is a disjoint union of the cosets g1H,..., gnH. Over any commutative base ring k define the group algebras A = k and B = k, so B is a subalgebra of A. Define a Frobenius homomorphism E: A → B by letting E = h for all h in H, and E = 0 for g not in H : extend this linearly from the basis group elements to all of A, so one obtains the B-B-bimodule projection
The dual base is given by, since
The other dual base equation may be derived from the observation that G is also a disjoint union of the right cosets.
Also Hopf-Galois extensions are Frobenius extensions by a theorem of Kreimer and Takeuchi from 1989. A simple example of this is a finite group G acting by automorphisms on an algebra A with subalgebra of invariants:
By DeMeyer's criterion A is G-Galois over B if there are elements in A satisfying:
whence also
Then A is a Frobenius extension of B with E: A → B defined by
which satisfies
Frobenius extensions have a well-developed theory of induced representations investigated in papers by Kasch and Pareigis, Nakayama and Tzuzuku in the 1950s and 1960s. For example, for each B-module M, the induced module A ⊗B M and co-induced module HomB are naturally isomorphic as A-modules. The endomorphism ring theorem of Kasch from 1960 states that if A | B is a Frobenius extension, then so is A → End where the mapping is given by a ↦ λa and λa = ax for each a,x ∈ A. Endomorphism ring theorems and converses were investigated later by Mueller, Morita, Onodera and others.