Quantization of Lie bialgebras. V: Quantum vertex operator algebras (Q1573775)

The authors define and study the notion of a quantum vertex operator algebra (VOA) in the setting of formal deformation theory and give examples of such algebras. Their definition of a quantum VOA is based on ideas of \textit{E. Frenkel} and \textit{N. Yu. Reshetikhin} [Towards deformed chiral algebras, Contribution to the Proc. quantum group symposium at the 21st International Colloquium on group theoretical methods in physics, Goslar 1996, 18 pp.; q-alg/9706023]. They consider the bosonic case, but state that everything generalizes to the supercase. They first define a braided VOA. Here the \(k\)-vector space \(V\) for an ordinary VOA is taken instead as a topologically free \(k[[h]]\)-module, and the locality axiom for a VOA is replaced by \(S\)-locality, where \(S\) is a shift-invariant unitary solution of the quantum Yang-Baxter equation. A VOA satisfies an associativity property, but a braided VOA satisfies a weaker version (quasi-associativity), with insertions of \(S\) into the associativity property. A quantum VOA is a braided VOA satisfying a hexagon axiom (analogous to a property of quasitriangular Hopf algebras). A quantum VOA possesses the operator product expansion. A quantum VOA \(V\) has a classical limit \(V^0\) (obtained when \(h\to 0\)), which is a VOA. \(V^0\) has a quasiclassical structure which is a shift-invariant solution \(s\) of the classical Yang-Baxter equation with values in \(\text{End} (V^0)\), where \(s\) is the \(h\)-derivative of \(S\) when \(h=0\). To study quasiclassical structures on VOA's, they generalize the notion of a derivation of a VOA, and also define pseudoderivations. The pseudoderivations of a VOA \(V\) form a Lie subalgebra of \(\Hom (V,V\otimes k((z)))\). Then a quasiclassical structure on \(V\) is a unitary solution of the classical Yang-Baxter equation with components which are pseudoderivations of \(V\). In particular, if \(V\) is the affine VOA arising from a simple Lie algebra \({\mathfrak g}\) and a central charge, then for any classical \(r\)-matrix on \({\mathfrak g}\) with spectral parameter, one can associate a quasiclassical structure on \(V\). In the second section of the paper, they quantize this quasiclassical structure for \(V= sl_N\), when the \(r\)-matrix is rational, trigonometric or elliptic, using quantum loop groups. The resulting quantum VOA is presented by explicit formulas, and the simplest vertex operator is the quantum current of \textit{N. Yu. Reshetikhin} and \textit{M. A. Semenov-Tian-Shansky} [Lett. Math. Phys. 19, 133-142 (1990; Zbl 0692.22011)]. It satisfies the relation defining the quantum loop algebra. The authors state that all this generalizes from \(sl_N\) to any simple Lie algebra. In the final section, they quantize the construction of the affine VOA based on conformal blocks on \(\mathbb{P}^1\) for the Wess-Zumino-Witten model. This quantization works only for rational \(r\)-matrices. They obtained quantum VOA coincides with the one obtained in the second section.