We give a self-contained introduction to the theory of quantum groups according to Drinfeld, highlighting the formal aspects as well as the applications to the Yang-Baxter equation and representation theory. Introductions to Hopf algebras, Poisson structures and deformation quantization are also provided. After defining Poisson Lie groups we study their relation to Lie bialgebras and the classical Yang-Baxter equation. Then we explain in detail the concept of quantization for them. As an example the quantization of sl2 is explicitly carried out. Next we show how quantum groups are related to the Yang-Baxter equation and how they can be used to solve it. Using the quantum double construction we explicitly construct the universal R matrix for the quantum sl2 algebra. In the last section we deduce all finite-dimensional irreducible representations for q a root of unity. We also give their tensor product decomposition (fusion rules), which is relevant to conformal field theory.
INTRODUCTION TO QUANTIZED LIE GROUPS AND ALGEBRAS