Dual Pairs of Hopf *-Algebras

If A is a Hopf *-algebra, the dual space A' is again a *-algebra.There is a natural subalgebra A° of A' that is again a Hopf*-algebra. In many interesting examples, A° will be largeenough (to separate points of A). More generally, one can considera pair (A, B) of Hopf *-algebras and a bilinear form on A xB with conditions such that, if the pairing is non-degenerate,one algebra can be considered as a subalgebra of the dual ofthe other. In these notes, we study such pairs of Hopf *-algebras. We startfrom the notion of a Hopf *-algebra A and its reduced dual A°.We give examples of pairs of Hopf *-algebras, and discuss theproblem of non-degeneracy. The first example is an algebra pairedwith itself. The second example is the pairing of a Hopf *-algebra(due to Jimbo) and the twisted SU(n) of Woronowicz. We alsodiscuss the notion of the quantum double of Drinfeld in thisframework of dual pairs.