Invariant Differential Operators for Quantum Symmetric Spaces, I Gail Letzter∗ Mathematics Department Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 24061
[email protected] January 1, 2018 Abstract This is the first paper in a series of two which proves a version of a theorem of Harish-Chandra for quantum symmetric spaces in the maximally split case: There is a Harish-Chandra map which induces an isomorphism between the ring of quantum invariant differential op- erators and the ring of invariants of a certain Laurent polynomial ring under an action of the restricted Weyl group. Here, we establish this result for all quantum symmetric spaces defined using irreducible sym- metric pairs not of type EIII, EIV, EVII, or EIX. A quantum version of a related theorem due to Helgason is also obtained: The image of the center under this Harish-Chandra map is the entire invariant ring arXiv:math/0406193v1 [math.QA] 9 Jun 2004 if and only if the underlying irreducible symmetric pair is not one of these four types. Introduction In [HC2, Section 4], Harish-Chandra proved the following fundamental result for semisimple Lie groups: the Harish-Chandra map induces an isomorphism ∗supported by NSA grant no. MDA904-03-1-0033. AMS subject classification 17B37 1 between the ring of invariant differential operators on a symmetric space and invariants of an appropriate polynomial ring under the restricted Weyl group. When the symmetric space is simply a complex semisimple Lie group, this result is Harish-Chandra’s famous realization of the center of the enveloping algebra of a semisimple Lie algebra as Weyl group invariants of the Cartan subalgebra ([HC1]).