Nijenhuis algebras, NS algebras and N-dendriform algebras

In this paper we study (associative) Nijenhuis algebras, with emphasis on the relationship between the category of Nijenhuis algebras and the categories of NS algebras. This is in analogy to the well-known theory of the adjoint functor from the category of Lie algebras to that of associative algebras, and the more recent results on the adjoint functor from the categories of dendriform and tridendriform algebras to that of Rota-Baxter algebras. We first give an explicit construction of free Nijenhuis algebras and then apply it to obtain the universal enveloping Nijenhuis algebra of an NS algebra. We further apply the construction to determine the binary quadratic nonsymmetric algebra, called the N-dendriform algebra, that is compatible with the Nijenhuis algebra. As it turns out, the N-dendriform algebra has more relations than the NS algebra.