The bar involution for quantum symmetric pairs

Abstract: We construct a bar involution for quantum symmetric pair coideal subalgebras $B_{\mathbf{c},\mathbf{s}}$ corresponding to involutive automorphisms of the second kind of symmetrizable Kac-Moody algebras. To this end we give unified presentations of these algebras in terms of generators and relations extending previous results by G. Letzter and the second named author. We specify precisely the set of parameters $\mathbf{c}$ for which such an intrinsic bar involution exists.