A monoidal category for perturbed defects in conformal field theory (Q982440)

The paper is devoted to developing a category theory framework for studying integrable structures of conformal field theories (see also [\textit{I. Runkel}, J. Phys. A, Math. Theor. 41, No. 10, Article ID 105401, 21 p. (2008; Zbl 1138.81508)]). It is known [\textit{J. Fuchs, I. Runkel} and \textit{C. Schweigert}, Nucl. Phys., B 646, No.3, 353--497 (2002; Zbl 0999.81079)] that maximally symmetric conformal defects of a rational conformal field theory with the diagonal modular invariant correspond to representations \(Rep(V)\) of the chiral algebra \(V\) of the theory. It is also known that such representations form a modular tensor category [\textit{Y.-Z. Huang}, Commun. Contemp. Math. 10, Suppl. 1, 871--911 (2008; Zbl 1169.17019)]. It is shown in the paper that defects perturbed by a chiral filed localised on a defect \(F\in\text{Rep}(V)\) correspond to pairs \((U,u)\), where \(U\in\text{Rep}(V)\) is the unperturbed defect and \(u:U\otimes F\to U\) is the morphism in \(\text{Rep}(V)\) (the direction of perturbation). Such perturbed defects (for fixed \(F\)) form an abelian monoidal rigid category \(\text{Rep}(V)_F\). It is also shown that defect operators corresponding to perturbed defects can be studied by means of the Grothendieck ring of \(\text{Rep}(V)_F\). More precisely, the map assigning to a defect the defect operator on the space of bulk fields of the theory factors through the Grothendieck ring. The Yang-Lee theory is treated as an example.