Automorphisms of Generalized Down-Up Algebras

A generalization of down-up algebras was introduced by Cassidy and Shelton (J. Algebra 279 (2004), no. 1), the so-called generalized down-up algebras. We describe the automorphism group of conformal Noetherian generalized down-up algebras L(f,r,s,\gamma) such that r is not a root of unity, listing explicitly the elements of the group. In the last section we apply these results to Noetherian down-up algebras, thus obtaining a characterization of the automorphism group of Noetherian down-up algebras A(\alpha, \beta, \gamma) for which the roots of the polynomial X^2-\alpha X-\beta are not both roots of unity.