Quantum Supergroups I. Foundations

In this part one of a series of papers, we introduce a new version of quantum covering and super groups with no isotropic odd simple root, which is suitable for the studies of integrable modules, integral forms and bar-involution. A quantum covering group involves a quantum parameter q and a sign parameter pi squaring to 1, and it specializes to a quantum supergroup when pi=-1. Following Lusztig, we formulate and establish various structural results of the quantum covering groups, including bilinear form, quasi-R-matrix, Casimir, character formulas for integrable modules, and higher Serre relations.