Structure and classification of superconformal nets (Q954763)

With massless particles in quantum field theory, the space-time transformation group compatible with locality is the conformal group, as was first pointed out by Polyakov in the 1970s. In contrast to dimensions \(d>2\) of space-time, for \(d=2\) the conformal group is infinite dimensional. Over the years conformal field theory for \(d=2\) has been a source of inspiration for developments in pure mathematics. The authors of the present article dwell on operator algebraic methods. They aim at a general model independent study of superconformal quantum field theory on \(S^1\), the compactification of one of the chiral lines \(x\pm t=0\). Superconformal means that a higher level, namely supersymmetry, is used which combines Bose and Fermi statistics and relates to noncommutative geometry of A.\ Connes. The authors present an analysis of the general structure of Fermi (super)conformal nets of von Neumann algebras and their representations. They note that a Fermi net always contains a local Bose subnet and argue that there is an obvious extension of the Doplicher-Haag-Roberts procedure to the Fermi case. The representations fall into two classes: Neveu-Schwarz and Ramond. A Jones index may be associated with each of them. A formula is derived involving the Fredholm index of the supercharge and the Jones index. The concept of a generalized soliton is developed. The super-Lie algebra underlying the superconformal symmetry is a super-Virasoro algebra. Then the task, here successfully performed, is to construct and analyze the nets of super-Virasoro algebras for a central charge \(c<3/2\) (the discrete case).