This textbook provides a concise, visual introduction to Hopf algebras and their application to knot theory, most notably the construction of solutions of the Yang–Baxter equations. Starting with a reformulation of the definition of a group in terms of structural maps as motivation for the definition of a Hopf algebra, the book introduces the related algebraic notions: algebras, coalgebras, bialgebras, convolution algebras, modules, comodules. Next, Drinfel’d’s quantum double construction is achieved through the important notion of the restricted (or finite) dual of a Hopf algebra, which allows one to work purely algebraically, without completions. As a result, in applications to knot theory, to any Hopf algebra with invertible antipode one can associate a universal invariant of long knots. These constructions are elucidated in detailed analyses of a few examples of Hopf algebras. weiterlesen