Conformal field theory with gauge symmetry. (Q939635)

This is a slightly extended version of a manuscript that Ueno published 1997 as volume 184 of {Lecture Notes in Pure and Applied Mathematics} with Dekker, New York. The present book provides an up-to-date introduction to conformal field theory with a special emphasis on gauge symmetry, an abstract version of the Wess-Zumino model. In 2007 J.\ E.\ Anderson and K.\ Ueno published two papers where they constructed modular functors in the context of conformal field theory. The construction reveals an interesting relationship between Algebraic Geometry and Topological Quantum Field Theory. For this purpose the present notes provide all the material necessary to construct the modular functor. Chapter 1 recalls the basic facts on compact Riemann surfaces. Chapter 2 presents the basic facts on the representation theory of affine Lie algebras and the related energy-momentum tensor. Chapter 3 defines conformal blocks and correlation functions while in Chapter 4 the sheaf of conformal blocks is constructed carrying a projectively flat connection which Ueno considers as one of the most important facts of his theory. Chapter 6 is devoted to studying the detailed structure of conformal field theory on the Riemann sphere \(P^1\). Vertex operators are discussed together with fundamental solutions of the KZ-equations (so called after work by Knizhnik and Zamolodchikov on the Wess-Zumino model).