Rota-Baxter Algebras and Dendriform Algebras

In this paper we study the adjoint functors between the category of Rota-Baxter algebras and the categories of dendriform dialgebras and trialgebras. In analogy to the well-known theory of the adjoint functor between the category of associative algebras and Lie algebras, we first give an explicit construction of free Rota-Baxter algebras and then apply it to obtain universal enveloping Rota-Baxter algebras of dendriform dialgebras and trialgebras. We further show that free dendriform dialgebras and trialgebras, as represented by binary planar trees and planar trees, are canonical subalgebras of free Rota-Baxter algebras.Comment: Typos corrected and the last section on analog of Poincare-Birkhoff-Witt theorem deleted for a gap in the proo

Free Rota-Baxter algebras and rooted trees

A Rota-Baxter algebra, also known as a Baxter algebra, is an algebra with a linear operator satisfying a relation, called the Rota-Baxter relation, that generalizes the integration by parts formula. Most of the studies on Rota-Baxter algebras have been for commutative algebras. Two constructions of free commutative Rota-Baxter algebras were obtained by Rota and Cartier in the 1970s and a third one by Keigher and one of the authors in the 1990s in terms of mixable shuffles. Recently, noncommutative Rota-Baxter algebras have appeared both in physics in connection with the work of Connes and Kreimer on renormalization in perturbative quantum field theory, and in mathematics related to the work of Loday and Ronco on dendriform dialgebras and trialgebras. This paper uses rooted trees and forests to give explicit constructions of free noncommutative Rota--Baxter algebras on modules and sets. This highlights the combinatorial nature of Rota--Baxter algebras and facilitates their further study. As an application, we obtain the unitarization of Rota-Baxter algebras.Comment: 23 page

Dendriform Equations

We investigate solutions for a particular class of linear equations in dendriform algebras. Motivations as well as several applications are provided. The latter follow naturally from the intimate link between dendriform algebras and Rota-Baxter operators, e.g. the Riemann integral or Jackson's q-integral.Comment: improved versio

Decision-Theoretic Consequentialism and the Desire-Luck Problem

Jackson (1991) proposes an interpretation of consequentialism, namely, the Decision Theoretic Consequentialism (DTC), which provides a middle ground between internal and external criteria of rightness inspired by decision theory. According to DTC, a right decision either leads to the best outcomes (external element) or springs from right motivations (internal element). He raises an objection to fully external interpretations, like objective consequentialism (OC), which he claims that DTC can resolve. He argues that those interpretations are either too objective, which prevents them from giving guidance for action, or their guidance leads to wrong and blameworthy actions or decisions. I discuss how the emphasis on blameworthiness in DTC constraints its domain to merely the justification of decisions that relies on rationality to provide a justification criterion for moral decisions. I provide examples that support the possibility of rational but immoral decisions that are at odds with DTC’s prescription for right decisions. Moreover, I argue what I call the desire-luck problem for the external element of justification criterion leads to the same objection for DTC that Jackson raised for OC. Therefore, DTC, although successful in response to some objections, fails to provide a prescription for the right decision

New identities in dendriform algebras

Dendriform structures arise naturally in algebraic combinatorics (where they allow, for example, the splitting of the shuffle product into two pieces) and through Rota-Baxter algebra structures (the latter appear, among others, in differential systems and in the renormalization process of pQFT). We prove new combinatorial identities in dendriform dialgebras that appear to be strongly related to classical phenomena, such as the combinatorics of Lyndon words, rewriting rules in Lie algebras, or the fine structure of the Malvenuto-Reutenauer algebra. One of these identities is an abstract noncommutative, dendriform, generalization of the Bohnenblust-Spitzer identity and of an identity involving iterated Chen integrals due to C.S. Lam.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX. Concrete examples and applications adde

On matrix differential equations in the Hopf algebra of renormalization

We establish Sakakibara's differential equations in a matrix setting for the counter term (respectively renormalized character) in Connes-Kreimer's Birkhoff decomposition in any connected graded Hopf algebra, thus including Feynman rules in perturbative renormalization as a key example.Comment: 22 pages, typos correcte