Duality and self-duality for dynamical quantum groups

Abstract

We define a natural concept of duality for the h-Hopf algebroids introduced by Etingof and Varchenko. We prove that the special case of the trigonometric SL(2) dynamical quantum group is self-dual, and may therefore be viewed as a deformation both of the function algebra F(SL(2)) and of the enveloping algebra U(sl(2)). Matrix elements of the self-duality in the Peter-Weyl basis are 6j-symbols; this leads to a new algebraic interpretation of the hexagon identity or quantum dynamical Yang-Baxter equation for quantum and classical 6j-symbols.