Free resolutions for free unitary quantum groups and universal cosovereign Hopf algebras

We find a finite free resolution of the counit of the free unitary quantum groups of van Daele and Wang and, more generally, Bichon's universal cosovereign Hopf algebras with a generic parameter matrix. This allows us to compute Hochschild cohomology with one-dimensional coefficients for all these Hopf algebras. In fact, the resolutions can be endowed with a Yetter–Drinfeld structure. General results of Bichon then allow us to compute also the corresponding bialgebra cohomologies. Finding the resolution rests on two pillars. We take as a starting point the resolution for the free orthogonal quantum group presented by Collins, Härtel, and Thom or its algebraic generalization to quantum symmetry groups of bilinear forms due to Bichon. Then, we make use of the fact that the free unitary quantum groups and some of its non-Kac versions can be realized as a glued free product of a (non-Kac) free orthogonal quantum group with $Z_2$, the finite group of order 2. To obtain the resolution also for more general universal cosovereign Hopf algebras, we extend Gromada's proof from compact quantum groups to the framework of matrix Hopf algebras. As a by-product of this approach, we also obtain a projective resolution for the freely modified bistochastic quantum groups. Only a special subclass of free unitary quantum groups and universal cosovereign Hopf algebras decompose as a glued free product in the described way. In order to verify that the sequence we found is a free resolution in general (as long as the parameter matrix is generic, two conditions which are automatically fulfilled in the free unitary quantum group case), we use the theory of Hopf bi-Galois objects and Bichon's results on monoidal equivalences between the categories of Yetter–Drinfeld modules over universal cosovereign Hopf algebras for different parameter matrices.