Prime spectra of ambiskew polynomial rings

Abstract

We determine criteria for the prime spectrum of an ambiskew polynomial algebra $R$ over an algebraically closed field $K$ to be akin to those of two of the principal examples of such an algebra, namely the universal enveloping algebra $U(sl_2)$ (in characteristic $0$) and its quantization $U_q(sl_2)$ (when $q$ is not a root of unity). More precisely, we aim to determine when the prime spectrum of $R$ consists of $0$, the ideals $(z-\lambda)R$ for some central element $z$ of $R$ and all $\lambda\in K$, and, for some positive integer $d$ and each positive integer $m$, $d$ height two prime ideals with Goldie rank $m$. New applications are to certain ambiskew polynomial rings over coordinate rings of quantum tori which arise, as localizations of connected quantized Weyl algebras.