We give a new type of Schur-Weyl duality for the representations of a family of quantum subgroups and their centralizer algebra. We define and classify singly-generated, Yang-Baxter relation planar algebras. We present the skein theoretic construction of a new parameterized planar algebra. We construct infinitely many new subfactors and unitary fusion categories, and compute their trace formula as a closed-form expression, in terms of Young diagrams.

We show that the Kazhdan-Lusztig category KL_k of level-k finite-length modules with highest-weight composition factors for the affine Lie superalgebra gl(1|1)ˆ has vertex algebraic braided tensor supercategory structure, and that its full subcategory O_k^fin of objects with semisimple Cartan subalgebra actions is a tensor subcategory. We show that every simple gl(1|1)ˆ-module in KL_k has a projective cover in O_k^fin, and we determine all fusion rules involving simple and projective objects in O_k^fin. Then using Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov equations, we prove that KL_k and O_k^fin are rigid. As an application of the tensor supercategory structure on O_k^fin, we study certain module categories for the affine Lie superalgebra sl(2|1)ˆ at levels 1 and −1/2. In particular, we obtain a tensor category of sl(2|1)ˆ-modules at level −1/2 that includes relaxed highest-weight modules and their images under spectral flow.

We construct two non-semisimple braided ribbon tensor categories of modules for each singlet vertex operator algebra M(p), p≥2. The first category consists of all finite-length M(p)-modules with atypical composition factors, while the second is the subcategory of modules that induce to local modules for the triplet vertex operator algebra W(p). We show that every irreducible module has a projective cover in the second of these categories, although not in the first, and we compute all fusion products involving atypical irreducible modules and their projective covers.

We develop a general theory of canonical bases for quantum symmetric pairs (U, U^i) with parameters of arbitrary finite type. We construct new canonical bases for the simple integrable U-modules and their tensor products regarded as U^i-modules. We also construct a canonical basis for the modified form of the i-quantum group U^i. To that end, we establish several new structural results on quantum symmetric pairs, such as bilinear forms, braid group actions, integral forms, Levi subalgebras (of real rank one), and integrality of the intertwiners.

In this paper, we generalize the categorifical construction of a quantum group and its canonical basis by Lusztig (\cite{Lusztig,Lusztig2}) to the generic form of whole Ringel-Hall algebra. We clarify the explicit relation between the Green formula in \cite{Green} and the restriction functor in \cite{Lusztig2}. By a geometric way to prove Green formula, we show that the Hopf structure of a Ringel-Hall algebra can be categorified under Lusztig's framework.