Serre-Lusztig relations for $\imath$quantum groups

Abstract

Let $(\bf U, \bf U^\imath)$ be a quantum symmetric pair of Kac-Moody type. The $\imath$quantum groups $\bf U^\imath$ and the universal $\imath$quantum groups $\widetilde{\bf U}^\imath$ can be viewed as a generalization of quantum groups and Drinfeld doubles $\widetilde{\bf U}$. In this paper we formulate and establish Serre-Lusztig relations for $\imath$quantum groups in terms of $\imath$divided powers, which are an $\imath$-analog of Lusztig's higher order Serre relations for quantum groups. This has applications to braid group symmetries on $\imath$quantum groups.