Flat twistor spaces, conformally flat manifolds and four-dimensional field theory (Q2638566): Difference between revisions

This paper presents a definition of a ``four dimensional conformal field theory'' (4D-CFT) by replacing the Riemann surfaces of two-dimensional CFT by conformally flat four-manifolds and the holomorphic functions by solutions of the Dirac equation. Generalizing Segal's axiomatization of two-dimensional CFT, this work gives a twistor description of the conformally flat 4-manifolds in the context of four-dimensional twistor conformal field theories. In this formulation the difference between the ``geometric'' and the ``algebraic'' definitions of the determinant line of a flat twistor space is significant. The final suggestion for a generalization of four-dimensional CFT involves an appropriate formulation of Yang-Mills theory on conformally flat four-manifolds.