# The PBW property for associative algebras as an integrability condition

Research paper by Boris Shoikhet

Indexed on: 24 Jul '13Published on: 24 Jul '13Published in: Mathematics - Quantum Algebra

#### Abstract

We develop an elementary method for proving the PBW theorem for associative algebras with an ascending filtration. The idea is roughly the following. At first, we deduce a proof of the PBW property for the {\it ascending} filtration (with the filtered degree equal to the total degree in $x_i$'s) to a suitable PBW-like property for the {\it descending} filtration (with the filtered degree equal to the power of a polynomial parameter $\hbar$, introduced to the problem). This PBW property for the descending filtration guarantees the genuine PBW property for the ascending filtration, for almost all specializations of the parameter $\hbar$. At second, we develop some very constructive method for proving this PBW-like property for the descending filtration by powers of $\hbar$, emphasizing its integrability nature. We show how the method works in three examples. As a first example, we give a proof of the classical Poincar\'{e}-Birkhoff-Witt theorem for Lie algebras. As a second, much less trivial example, we present a new proof of a result of Etingof and Ginzburg [EG] on PBW property of algebras with a cyclic non-commutative potential in three variables. Finally, as a third example, we found a criterium, for a general quadratic algebra which is the quotient-algebra of $T(V)[\hbar]$ by the two-sided ideal, generated by $(x_i\otimes x_j-x_j\otimes x_i-\hbar\phi_{ij})_{i,j}$, with $\phi_{ij}$ general quadratic non-commutative polynomials, to be a PBW for generic specialization $\hbar=a$. This result seems to be new.