Automorphisms of the affine \(SU(3)\) fusion rules (Q1319912)

In two-dimensional conformal field theory ``modular invariance'' is one of the axioms. For such theories the modular invariant partition function \(Z\) is given as \(Z(\overline {\tau},\tau)= \sum_{i,j} \overline {\chi_ i (\tau)} N_{i,j} \chi_ j (\tau)\). Here \(\tau\) is the modular parameter and the \(\chi_ i\) are the irreducible characters of the symmetry group of the theory. The modular group \(\text{SL} (2, \mathbb{Z})\), generated by its standard generators \(s\) and \(t\), is operating on these characters. This yields a representation of the modular group on the vector space generated by the characters. To obtain a modular invariant partition function the matrix \(S\) (representing \(s\) on this space), the matrix \(T\) (representing \(t\) on this space) and the matrix \(N= (N_{i,j})\) have to fulfil certain commutation relations. These conditions restrict very much the nature of \(N\). In particular, it is a permutation matrix. These permutations are the automorphisms of the fusion algebra. In the article under review the author studies this structure in the case that the symmetry group is the untwisted affine Kac-Moody algebra \(\widehat {\text{SU}(3)}\). In particular, he shows that the automorphism group is either \(\mathbb{Z}_{/2}\) or \(\mathbb{Z}_{/2}\times \mathbb{Z}_{/2}\), depending on the level of the representation. To calculate the representation matrix \(S\) the theory of cyclotomic fields is used.