TITLE: The quantum group SUq(n) as von Neumann algebra
QUESTION [7 upvotes]: i have a question about a "presentation" of the quantum $SU(n)$. Here presentation means the following. Let $(M,\Delta)$ be a quantum group in the sense of Kustermanns and Vaes. One can show that the von Neumann algebraic quantum group $SU_q(2)$, which will be denotes by $\mathscr{L}^{\infty}(SU_q(2))$ is $B(\ell^2(\mathbb{N}))\overline{\otimes}\mathscr{L}(\mathbb{Z})$ (where the tensor product denotes the von Neumann algebraic tensor product). Can one generalize this to $SU_q(n)$. Can one find an explicit expression for $\mathscr{L}^{\infty}(SU_q(n))$ as above?
Thank you very much

REPLY [4 votes]: Theorem 3.1 of [2] is basically what you need. It implies $L^\infty(G_q) \simeq B(\ell^2(\mathbf{N})) \otimes L^\infty(T)$ for the maximal torus $T$ in $G$ (connected semisimple compact Lie group), and up to isomorphism the translation action of $T$ is just the standard one on the second factor.
As suggested there, Soibelman's work [1] on the classification of irreducible representations of $C(G_q)$ brings you most of the way for this. It implies that $C(G_q)$ is of type I and does not have finite dimensional irreducible representations of dimension $>1$, so any von Neumann algebraic closure has to be of the form $A_1 \oplus B(\ell^2(\mathbf{N})) \otimes A_2$ for some commutative von Neumann algebras $A_1, A_2$. Then you take into account of the torus action to show $A_1 = 0$ (edit: and that $A_2$ is diffuse) in the regular representation.

Ya. S. Soibelman, Algebra of functions on a compact quantum group and its representations, Algebra i Analiz 2 (1990), no. 1, 190--212.
Reiji Tomatsu, Product type actions of $G_q$, Adv. Math. 269 (2015), 162--196.