ABSTRACT
In an upcoming article we study harmonic analysis on the quantum E(2) group within an algebraic framework: we explicitly construct Fourier transforms between quantum E(2) and its Pontryagin dual, involving q-Bessel functions as kernel, prove Plancherel & inversion formulas etc. In the present paper we propose an algebraic setting in which to perform harmonic analysis on non-compact, non-discrete quantum groups and in particular on quantum E(2). We are mainly concerned with the construction of positive and faithful invariant functionals on an algebraic level, KMS properties, etc.