A formula for the R-matrix using a system of weight preserving endomorphisms

Abstract

We give a formula for the universal R-matrix of the quantized universal enveloping algebra $U_q(\g).$ This is similar to a previous formula due to Kirillov-Reshetikhin and Levendorskii-Soibelman, except that where they use the action of the braid group element $T_{w_0}$ on each representation, we show that one can instead use a system of weight preserving endomorphisms. One advantage of our construction is that it is well defined for all symmetrizable Kac-Moody algebras. However we have only established that the result in equal to the universal R-matrix in finite type.