Inductive limits of compact quantum groups and their unitary representations

We will introduce the notion of inductive limits of compact quantum groups as $W^*$-bialgebras equipped with some additional structures. We also formulate their unitary representation theories. Those give a more explicit representation-theoretic meaning to our previous study of quantized characters associated with a given inductive system of compact quantum groups. As a byproduct, we will give an explicit representation-theoretic interpretation to some transformations that play an important role in the analysis of $q$-central probability measures on the paths in the Gelfand-Tsetlin graph.