Rota-Baxter operators on cocommutative Hopf algebras

Abstract: We generalize the notion of a Rota-Baxter operator on groups and the notion of a Rota-Baxter operator of weight 1 on Lie algebras and define and study the notion of a Rota-Baxter operator on a cocommutative Hopf algebra $H$. If $H=F[G]$ is the group algebra of a group $G$ or $H=U(\mathfrak{g})$ the universal enveloping algebra of a Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$, then we prove that Rota-Baxter operators on $H$ are in one to one correspondence with corresponding Rota-Baxter operators on groups or Lie algebras.