Hodge and Laplace–Beltrami Operators for Bicovariant Differential Calculi on Quantum Groups

Abstract

For bicovariant differential calculi on quantum matrix groups a generalisation of classical notions such as metric tensor, Hodge operator, codifferential and Laplace–Beltrami operator for arbitrary k-forms is given. Under some technical assumptions it is proved that Woronowicz' external algebra of left-invariant differential forms either contains a unique form of maximal degree or it is infinite-dimensional. Using Jucys–Murphy elements of the Hecke algebra, the eigenvalues of the Laplace–Beltrami operator for the Hopf algebra ${\mathcal {O}}$(SL_q(N)) are computed.