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Vertex operator algebras were introduced to mathematics in the work of Richard Borcherds, Igor Frenkel, James Lepowsky and Arne Meurman as a mathematically rigorous formulation of chiral algebras of two-dimensional conformal field theory. The aim was to use vertex operator algebras to explain and prove the remarkable Monstrous Moonshine conjectures in group theory. The theory of vertex operator algebras has now grown into a major research area in mathematics. These proceedings contain expository lectures and research papers presented during the international conference on Vertex Operator Algebras and Related Areas, held at Illinois State University in Normal, IL, from July 7 to July 11, 2008. The main aspects of this conference were connections and interactions of vertex operator algebras with the following areas: conformal field theories, quantum field theories, Hopf algebra, infinite dimensional Lie algebras, and modular forms. This book will be useful for researchers as well as for graduate students in mathematics and physics. Its purpose is not only to give an up-to-date overview of the fields covered by the conference but also to stimulate new directions and discoveries by experts in the areas.
The rapidly-evolving theory of vertex operator algebras provides deep insight into many important algebraic structures. Vertex operator algebras can be viewed as "complex analogues" of both Lie algebras and associative algebras. The monograph is written in a n accessible and self-contained manner, with detailed proofs and with many examples interwoven through the axiomatic treatment as motivation and applications. It will be useful for research mathematicians and theoretical physicists working the such fields as representation theory and algebraic structure sand will provide the basis for a number of graduate courses and seminars on these and related topics.
Vertex algebras are algebraic objects that encapsulate the concept of operator product expansion from two-dimensional conformal field theory. Vertex algebras are fast becoming ubiquitous in many areas of modern mathematics, with applications to representation theory, algebraic geometry, the theory of finite groups, modular functions, topology, integrable systems, and combinatorics. This book is an introduction to the theory of vertex algebras with a particular emphasis on the relationship with the geometry of algebraic curves. The notion of a vertex algebra is introduced in a coordinate-independent way, so that vertex operators become well defined on arbitrary smooth algebraic curves, possibly equipped with additional data, such as a vector bundle. Vertex algebras then appear as the algebraic objects encoding the geometric structure of various moduli spaces associated with algebraic curves. Therefore they may be used to give a geometric interpretation of various questions of representation theory. The book contains many original results, introduces important new concepts, and brings new insights into the theory of vertex algebras. The authors have made a great effort to make the book self-contained and accessible to readers of all backgrounds. Reviewers of the first edition anticipated that it would have a long-lasting influence on this exciting field of mathematics and would be very useful for graduate students and researchers interested in the subject. This second edition, substantially improved and expanded, includes several new topics, in particular an introduction to the Beilinson-Drinfeld theory of factorization algebras and the geometric Langlands correspondence.
This work is motivated by and develops connections between several branches of mathematics and physics--the theories of Lie algebras, finite groups and modular functions in mathematics, and string theory in physics. The first part of the book presents a new mathematical theory of vertex operator algebras, the algebraic counterpart of two-dimensional holomorphic conformal quantum field theory. The remaining part constructs the Monster finite simple group as the automorphism group of a very special vertex operator algebra, called the "moonshine module" because of its relevance to "monstrous moonshine."
This volume contains the proceedings of the conference on Lie Algebras, Vertex Operator Algebras, and Related Topics, celebrating the 70th birthday of James Lepowsky and Robert Wilson, held from August 14–18, 2015, at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana. Since their seminal work in the 1970s, Lepowsky and Wilson, their collaborators, their students, and those inspired by their work, have developed an amazing body of work intertwining the fields of Lie algebras, vertex algebras, number theory, theoretical physics, quantum groups, the representation theory of finite simple groups, and more. The papers presented here include recent results and descriptions of ongoing research initiatives representing the broad influence and deep connections brought about by the work of Lepowsky and Wilson and include a contribution by Yi-Zhi Huang summarizing some major open problems in these areas, in particular as they pertain to two-dimensional conformal field theory.
* Introduces the fundamental theory of vertex operator algebras and its basic techniques and examples. * Begins with a detailed presentation of the theoretical foundations and proceeds to a range of applications. * Includes a number of new, original results and brings fresh perspective to important works of many other researchers in algebra, lie theory, representation theory, string theory, quantum field theory, and other areas of math and physics.
The basic definitions and properties of vertex operator algebras, modules, intertwining operators and related concepts are presented, following a fundamental analogy with Lie algebra theory. The first steps in the development of the general theory are taken, and various natural and useful reformulations of the axioms are given. In particular, tensor products of algebras and modules, adjoint vertex operators and contragradient modules, adjoint intertwining operators and fusion rules are studied in greater depth. This paper lays the monodromy-free axiomatic foundation of the general theory of vertex operator algebras, modules and intertwining operators.
The theory of vertex operator algebras and their representations has been showing its power in the solution of concrete mathematical problems and in the understanding of conceptual but subtle mathematical and physical struc- tures of conformal field theories. Much of the recent progress has deep connec- tions with complex analysis and conformal geometry. Future developments, especially constructions and studies of higher-genus theories, will need a solid geometric theory of vertex operator algebras. Back in 1986, Manin already observed in Man) that the quantum theory of (super )strings existed (in some sense) in two entirely different mathematical fields. Under canonical quantization this theory appeared to a mathematician as the representation theories of the Heisenberg, Vir as oro and affine Kac- Moody algebras and their superextensions. Quantization with the help of the Polyakov path integral led on the other hand to the analytic theory of algebraic (super ) curves and their moduli spaces, to invariants of the type of the analytic curvature, and so on.He pointed out further that establishing direct mathematical connections between these two forms of a single theory was a big and important problem. On the one hand, the theory of vertex operator algebras and their repre- sentations unifies (and considerably extends) the representation theories of the Heisenberg, Virasoro and Kac-Moody algebras and their superextensions.
The theory of vertex operator algebras is a remarkably rich new mathematical field which captures the algebraic content of conformal field theory in physics. Ideas leading up to this theory appeared in physics as part of statistical mechanics and string theory. In mathematics, the axiomatic definitions crystallized in the work of Borcherds and in Vertex Operator Algebras and the Monster, by Frenkel, Lepowsky, and Meurman. The structure of monodromies of intertwining operators for modules of vertex operator algebras yield braid group representations and leads to natural generalizations of vertex operator algebras, such as superalgebras and para-algebras. Many examples of vertex operator algebras and their generalizations are related to constructions in classical representation theory and shed new light on the classical theory. This book accomplishes several goals. The authors provide an explicit spinor construction, using only Clifford algebras, of a vertex operator superalgebra structure on the direct sum of the basic and vector modules for the affine Kac-Moody algebra Dn(1). They also review and extend Chevalley's spinor construction of the 24-dimensional commutative nonassociative algebraic structure and triality on the direct sum of the three 8-dimensional D4-modules. Vertex operator para-algebras, introduced and developed independently in this book and by Dong and Lepowsky, are related to one-dimensional representations of the braid group. The authors also provide a unified approach to the Chevalley, Greiss, and E8 algebras and explain some of their similarities. A Third goal is to provide a purely spinor construction of the exceptional affine Lie algebra E8(1), a natural continuation of previous work on spinor and oscillator constructions of the classical affine Lie algebras. These constructions should easily extend to include the rest of the exceptional affine Lie algebras. The final objective is to develop an inductive technique of construction which could be applied to the Monster vertex operator algebra. Directed at mathematicians and physicists, this book should be accessible to graduate students with some background in finite-dimensional Lie algebras and their representations. Although some experience with affine Kac-Moody algebras would be useful, a summary of the relevant parts of that theory is included. This book shows how the concepts and techniques of Lie theory can be generalized to yield the algebraic structures associated with conformal field theory. The careful reader will also gain a detailed knowledge of how the spinor construction of classical triality lifts to the affine algebras and plays an important role in the spinor construction of vertex operator algebras, modules, and intertwining operators with nontrivial monodromies.
Based on courses given by the author at MIT and at Rome University in spring 1997, this book presents an introduction to algebraic aspects of conformal field theory. It includes material on the foundations of a rapidly growing area of algebraic conformal theory.