Traces of intertwiners for quantum groups and difference equations, I

Abstract

The main object considered in this paper is the trace function, defined as a suitably normalized trace of a product of intertwining operators for the Drinfeld-Jimbo quantum group, multiplied by the exponential of an element of the Cartan subalgebra. This function depends of two parameters -- the element of the Cartan subalgebra, and the highest weight of the Verma module in which the trace is taken. The main results of the paper are that the trace function satisfies two systems of difference equations with respect to the first parameter (the quantum Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov-Bernard and Macdonald-Ruijsenaars equations), and that it is symmetric with respect to the two parameters. In particular, this implies that for each of the above two systems of equations there is the dual system with respect to the second parameter, which is also satisfied by the trace function. The paper establishes a connection between the I.Frenkel-Reshetikhin theory of quantum conformal blocks, the work of Felder-Mukhin-Tarasov-Varchenko on the quantum KZB and Ruijsenaars equations, the work of Etingof-I.Frenkel- Kirillov Jr.-Styrkas on traces of intetwining operators, and the Macdonald- Cherednik theory. The methods of the paper are based on the theory of dynamical twists and R-matrices.