Compact quantum groups and group duality

Abstract

In this paper, we consider the *-representations of compact quantum groups and group duality. The main results in the paper are: (1) there is a one-to-one correspondence between the *-representations of compact quantum groups and *-representations of the dual Banach *-algebra; (2) the category of commutative compact quantum groups (semigroups) is a dual category to the category of compact groups (semigroups); (3) the dual category of the category of locally compact groups (semigroups) is the category of commutative Hopf C*-algebras with a particular property. Our group duality has the flavor of a Gelfand-Naimark type theorem for compact quantum groups, and for Hopf C*-algebras.