Canonical quantization of the boundary Wess-Zumino-Witten model (Q1885622)

The article under review, attempts to analyse the canonical structure of the boundary Wess-Zumino-Witten model (BWZW) with untwisted conformal boundary conditions. This is first done by studying the phase space of the boundary theory on a strip where it is shown, that it coincides with the phase space of the Chern-Simons theory on a solid cylinder (the disc times a line) with two Wilson lines. The main finding here, is a relation between two-dimensional boundary conformal field theory (BCFT) and three-dimensional topological theories. Then a decomposition of the Chern-Simons phase space on a punctured disc in terms of the one on a punctured sphere and of coadjoint orbits of the loop group are shown to be `easily' quantisable. This results in a description of the quantum boundary degrees of freedom in the WZW model by invariant tensors in a triple product of quantum group representations. In the action on the space of states of the boundary theory, the bulk primary fields of the WZW model are shown to combine the usual vertex operators of the current algebra with monodromy acting on the quantum group invariant tensors. Finally, the authors present the details of this construction for the spin \(1/2\) fields in the SU(2) WZW theory, thereby establishing their locality and computing their \(1\)-point functions. As a general remark, the organisation and presentation of the paper, with alternating sections which either recall previous (well known general) results, and on the oder hand, discussions of special cases, with lengthy but straightforward calculations, render the article somewhat unfocused.