Quantum Teichm\"uller space from quantum plane

TL;DR

This paper constructs the quantum Teichmüller space using tensor products of a canonical quantum plane representation, revealing natural appearances of the quantum dilogarithm and establishing connections to quantum tori and new quantizations.

Contribution

It derives the quantum Teichmüller space from tensor powers of a single quantum plane representation, linking algebraic structures to geometric quantization.

Findings

Quantum dilogarithm appears in tensor square decomposition.

Quantum mutation operator arises from tensor cube.

Quantum universal Teichmüller space is realized in infinite tensor powers.

Abstract

We derive the quantum Teichm\"uller space, previously constructed by Kashaev and by Fock and Chekhov, from tensor products of a single canonical representation of the modular double of the quantum plane. We show that the quantum dilogarithm function appears naturally in the decomposition of the tensor square, the quantum mutation operator arises from the tensor cube, the pentagon identity from the tensor fourth power of the canonical representation, and an operator of order three from isomorphisms between canonical representation and its left and right duals. We also show that the quantum universal Teichm\"uller space is realized in the infinite tensor power of the canonical representation naturally indexed by rational numbers including the infinity. This suggests a relation to the same index set in the classification of projective modules over the quantum torus, the unitary counterpart of the quantum plane, and points to a new quantization of the universal Teichm\"uller space.