Contractions on the Classical Double

Abstract

Lie algebra contractions on the classical Drinfel'd Double of a given Lie bialgebra are introduced and compared to the usual Lie bialgebra contraction theory. The connection between both approaches turns out to be intimately linked to duality problems. The non-relativistic (Galilean) limit of a (1+1) Poincaré Double is used to illustrate the contraction process. Finally, it is shown that, in a certain sense, the classical limit in a quantum algebra can be thought as a certain contraction on the corresponding Double.