Maschke functors, semisimple functors and separable functors of the second kind. Applications

Abstract

We introduce separable functors of the second kind (or $H$-separable functors) and $H$-Maschke functors. $H$-separable functors are generalizations of separable functors. Various necessary and sufficient conditions for a functor to be $H$-separable or $H$-Maschke, in terms of generalized (co)Casimir elements (integrals, in the case of Hopf algebras), are given. An $H$-separable functor is always $H$-Maschke, but the converse holds in particular situations. A special role will be played by Frobenius functors and their relations to $H$-separability. Our concepts are applied to modules, comodules, entwined modules, quantum Yetter-Drinfeld modules, relative Hopf modules.