An analogue of the classical Yang-Baxter equation for general algebraic structures

In this paper, we introduce an analogue of the classical Yang-Baxter equation for general algebraic structures (including nonassociative algebras and vertex operator algebras). Moreover, we give several ways to construct solutions of the equation in case the algebraic structure is graded by an abelian group. In particular, we construct some unitary nondegenerate trignometric solutions of the classical Yang-Baxter equation for affine Lie algebras by means of our equation.This paper was written while the author was a graduate student in the Department of Mathematics, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, U.S.A.