Multivalued groups, their representations and Hopf algebras

This paper introduces the concept ofn-valued groups and studies their algebraic and topological properties. We explore a number of examples. An important class consists of those that we calln-coset groups; they arise as orbit spaces of groupsG modulo a group of automorphisms withn elements. However, there are many examples that do not arise from this construction. We see that the theory ofn-valued groups is distinct from that of groups with a given automorphism group. There are natural concepts of the action of ann-valued group on a space and of a representation in an algebra of operators. We introduce the (purely algebraic) notion of ann-Hopf algebra and show that the ring of functions on ann-valued group and, in the topological case, the cohomology has ann-Hopf algebra structure. The cohomology algebra of the classifying space of a compact Lie group admits the structure of ann-Hopf algebra, wheren is the order of the Weyl group; the homology with dual structure is also ann-Hopf algebra. In general the group ring of ann-valued group is not ann-Hopf algebra but it is for ann-coset group constructed from an abelian group. Using the properties ofn-Hopf algebras we show that certain spaces do not admit the structure of ann-valued group and that certain commutativen-valued groups do not arise by applying then-coset construction to any commutative group.