Bivariate Continuous q-Hermite Polynomials and Deformed Quantum Serre Relations

We introduce bivariate versions of the continuous q-Hermite polynomials. We obtain algebraic properties for them (generating function, explicit expressions in terms of the univariate ones, backward difference equations and recurrence relations) and analytic properties (determining the orthogonality measure). We find a direct link between bivariate continuous q-Hermite polynomials and the star product method of [Kolb and Yakimov, Adv. Math. 2020] for quantum symmetric pairs to establish deformed quantum Serre relations for quasi-split quantum symmetric pairs of Kac-Moody type. We prove that these defining relations are obtained from the usual quantum Serre relations by replacing all monomials by multivariate orthogonal polynomials.