A Categorical Approach to Cyclic Cohomology of Quasi-Hopf Algebras and Hopf Algebroids

We apply categorical machinery to the problem of defining cyclic cohomology with coefficients in two particular cases, namely quasi-Hopf algebras and Hopf algebroids. In the case of the former, no definition was thus far available in the literature, and while a definition exists for the latter, we feel that our approach demystifies the seemingly arbitrary formulas present there. This paper emphasizes the importance of working with a biclosed monoidal category in order to obtain natural coefficients for a cyclic theory that are analogous to the stable anti-Yetter–Drinfeld contramodules for Hopf algebras.