Semiclassical differential structures

We semiclassicalise the standard notion of differential calculus in noncommutative geometry on algebras and quantum groups. We show in the symplectic case that the infinitesimal data for a differential calculus is a symplectic connection, and interpret its curvature as lowest order nonassociativity of the exterior algebra. Semiclassicalisation of the noncommutative torus provides an example with zero curvature. In the Poisson - Lie group case we study left-covariant infinitesimal data in terms of partially defined preconnections. We show that the moduli space of bicovariant infinitesimal data for quasitriangular Poisson - Lie groups has a canonical reference point which is flat in the triangular case. Using a theorem of Kostant, we completely determine the moduli space when the Lie algebra is simple: the canonical preconnection is the unique point other than in the case of sl(n), n > 2, when the moduli space is 1-dimensional. We relate the canonical preconnection to Drinfeld twists and thereby quantise it to a super coquasi-Hopf exterior algebra. We also discuss links with Fedosov quantisation.