Temperley-Lieb at roots of unity, a fusion category and the Jones quotient

TL;DR

This paper explores the structure and dimensions of Temperley-Lieb algebras at roots of unity, introduces the Jones quotients, and connects these to fusion categories and affine Lie algebra representations.

Contribution

It provides explicit dimension formulas for simple modules of Temperley-Lieb algebras and their quotients, and links these to fusion categories and affine algebra structures.

Findings

Explicit generating functions for simple module dimensions.

Dimension formulas for Jones algebra quotients.

Connection between Temperley-Lieb algebras and fusion categories.

Abstract

When the parameter $q$ is a root of unity, the Temperley-Lieb algebra $TL_n(q)$ is non-semisimple for almost all $n$. In this work, using cellular methods, we give explicit generating functions for the dimensions of all the simple $TL_n(q)$-modules. Jones showed that if the order $|q^2|=\ell$ there is a canonical symmetric bilinear form on $TL_n(q)$, whose radical $R_n(q)$ is generated by a certain idempotent $E_\ell\in TL_{\ell-1}(q)\subseteq TL_n(q)$, which is now referred to as the Jones-Wenzl idempotent, for which an explicit formula was subsequently given by Graham and Lehrer. Although the algebras $Q_n(\ell):=TL_n(q)/R_n(q)$, which we refer to as the Jones algebras (or quotients), are not the largest semisimple quotients of the $TL_n(q)$, our results include dimension formulae for all the simple $Q_n(\ell)$-modules. This work could therefore be thought of as generalising that of Jones et al. on the algebras $Q_n(\ell)$. We also treat a fusion category $\mathcal{C}_{\rm red}$ introduced by Reshitikhin, Turaev and Andersen, whose objects are the quantum $\mathfrak{sl}_2$-tilting modules with non-zero quantum dimension, and which has an associative truncated tensor product (the fusion product). We show $Q_n(\ell)$ is the endomorphism algebra of a certain module in $\mathcal{C}_{\rm red}$ and use this fact to recover a dimension formula for $Q_n(\ell)$. We also show how to construct a "stable limit" $K(Q_\infty)$ of the corresponding fusion category of the $Q_n(\ell)$, whose structure is determined by the fusion rule of $\mathcal{C}_{\rm red}$, and observe a connection with a fusion category of affine $\mathfrak{sl}_2$ and the Virosoro algebra.