On the unitary nature of abelian conformal blocks (Q2266910)

Conformal field theory has inspired mathematicians to study abelian conformal blocks as a subject of algebraic geometry. Although their space coincides with the space of theta functions, this well-known equivalence has not yet been made sufficiently clear. This paper tries to clarify the equivalence and determines the projectively flat unitary structure of abelian conformal blocks in terms of Wess-Zumino-Witten data. It should be emphasized that the present treatment is purely algebraic to the extent that at no point the reader encounters a theta function.