Rationality of Hilbert series in noncommutative invariant theory

It is a fundamental result in commutative algebra and invariant theory that a finitely generated graded module over a commutative finitely generated graded algebra has rational Hilbert series, and consequently the Hilbert series of the algebra of polynomial invariants of a group of linear transformations is rational, whenever this algebra is finitely generated. This basic principle is applied here to prove rationality of Hilbert series of algebras of invariants that are neither commutative nor finitely generated. Our main focus is on linear groups acting on certain factor algebras of the tensor algebra that arise naturally in the theory of polynomial identities.Comment: Examples both from commutative and noncommutative invariant theory are included, a problem is formulated and references are added. Comments for v3: references added, minor revisio

Quasideterminants

The determinant is a main organizing tool in commutative linear algebra. In this review we present a theory of the quasideterminants defined for matrices over a division algebra. We believe that the notion of quasideterminants should be one of main organizing tools in noncommutative algebra giving them the same role determinants play in commutative algebra.Comment: amstex; final version; to appear in Advances in Mat

Set-theoretic solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation, RC-calculus, and Garside germs

Building on a result by W. Rump, we show how to exploit the right-cyclic law (x.y).(x.z) = (y.x).(y.z) in order to investigate the structure groups and monoids attached with (involutive nondegenerate) set-theoretic solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation. We develop a sort of right-cyclic calculus, and use it to obtain short proofs for the existence both of the Garside structure and of the I-structure of such groups. We describe finite quotients that exactly play for the considered groups the role that Coxeter groups play for Artin-Tits groups