Linkage and translation for tensor products of representations of simple algebraic groups and quantum groups

Abstract Let be either a simple linear algebraic group over an algebraically closed field of characteristic or a quantum group at an ‐th root of unity. We define a tensor ideal of singular ‐ modules in the category of finite‐dimensional ‐modules and study the associated quotient category , called the regular quotient . For , the Coxeter number of , we establish a ‘linkage principle’ and a ‘translation principle’ for tensor products: Let be the essential image in of the principal block of . We first show that is closed under tensor products in . Then we prove that the monoidal structure of is governed to a large extent by the monoidal structure of . These results can be combined to give an external tensor product decomposition , where denotes the Verlinde category of .