We investigate compact quantum group actions on unital $C^*$-algebras by analyzing invariant subsets and invariant states. In particular, we come up with the concept of compact quantum group orbits and use it to show that countable compact metrizable spaces with infinitely many points are not quantum homogeneous spaces.

We construct faithful actions of quantum permutation groups on connected compact metrizable spaces. This disproves a conjecture of Goswami.

We describe the generalized Casimir operators and their actions on the positive representations Pλ of the modular double of split real quantum groups Uqq (gR). We introduce the notion of virtual highest and lowest weights, and show that the central characters admit positive values for all parameters λ. We show that their image defines a semi-algebraic region bounded by real points of the discriminant variety independent of q, and we discuss explicit examples in the lower rank cases.