Conformal quantum field theory and subfactors (Q1412946)

The paper under review is a nice survey on the recent progress of low-dimensional algebraic QFT (quantum field theory), especially in connection with subfactor theory. Though the natural spacetime of QFT is the 4-dimensional Minkowski space, the one-dimensional compactified spacetime \(S^1\) (one-dimensional circle) has caught much attention since it provides a rich source of mathematical problems and insight. As a starting point the axioms of algebraic (Haag-Araki-Kastler) QFT are applied to spacetime \(S^1\) with spacetime symmetries given by Möbius covariance (or conformal covariance). Important concepts such as Haag duality, localizability of a representation \(\pi\), (statistical) dimension of a representation, superselection sector, and braided tensor category arising from representations of a net of von Neumann algebras are then discussed. Furthermore, the notions of rational tensor category (a braided tensor category with finitely many irreducible objects) and modular tensor category are given. Along these lines three additional axioms which imply modularity of the tensor categories are recalled. Finally, the concepts of \(\alpha\)-induction and modular invariants are explained, and then they are also applied to the case when the Möbius group is replaced by the orientation preserving diffeomorphism group Diff\((S^1)\) as symmetry group. (Remember that Diff\((S^1)\) is an infinite-dimensional Lie group, and the corresponding infinite-dimensional Lie algebra to Diff\((S^1)\) is the celebrated Virasoro algebra.)