Quantum Group of Isometries in Classical and Noncommutative Geometry

We formulate a quantum generalization of the notion of the group of Riemannian isometries for a compact Riemannian manifold, by introducing a natural notion of smooth and isometric action by a compact quantum group on a classical or noncommutative manifold described by spectral triples, and then proving the existence of a universal object (called the quantum isometry group) in the category of compact quantum groups acting smoothly and isometrically on a given (possibly noncommutative) manifold satisfying certain regularity assumptions. The idea of ‘quantum families’ (due to Woronowicz and Soltan) are relevant to our construction. A number of explicit examples are given and possible applications of our results to the problem of constructing quantum group equivariant spectral triples are discussed. Supported in part by the Indian National Academy of Sciences.