We introduce the notion of a conformal design based on a vertex operator algebra. This notation is a natural analog of the notion of block designs or spherical designs when the elements of the design are based on self-orthogonal binary codes or integral lattices, respectively. It is shown that the subspaces of fixed degree of an extremal self-dual vertex operator algebra form conformal 11-, 7-, or 3-designs, generalizing similar results of Assmus-Mattson and Venkov for extremal doubly-even codes and extremal even lattices. Other examples are coming from group actions on vertex operator algebras, the case studied first by Matsuo. The classification of conformal 6- and 8-designs is investigated. Again, our results are analogous to similar results for codes and lattices.
Any variety of classical algebras has a so-called conformal counterpart. For example one can consider Lie conformal or associative conformal algebras. Lie conformal algebras are closely related to vertex algebras. We define free objects in the categories of conformal and vertex algebras. In some cases we can explicitly build their Groebner bases.
We first investigate the algebraic structure of vertex algebroids $B$ when $B$ are simple Leibniz algebras. Next, we use these vertex algebroids $B$ to construct indecomposable non-simple $C_2$-cofinite $\mathbb{N}$-graded vertex algebras $\overline{V_B}$. In addition, we classify $\mathbb{N}$-graded irreducible $\overline{V_B}$-modules and examine conformal vectors of these $\mathbb{N}$-graded vertex algebras $\overline{V_B}$.
Herein we study conformal vectors of a Z-graded vertex algebra of (strong) CFT type. We prove that the full vertex algebra automorphism group transitively acts on the set of the conformal vectors of strong CFT type if the vertex algebra is simple. The statement is equivalent to the uniqueness of self-dual vertex operator algebra structures of a simple vertex algebra. As an application, we show that the full vertex algebra automorphism group of a simple vertex operator algebra of strong CFT type uniquely decomposes into the product of certain two subgroups and the vertex operator algebra automo…
For a vertex operator algebra $V$ with conformal vector $ω$, we consider a class of vertex operator subalgebras and their conformal vectors. They are called semi-conformal vertex operator subalgebras and semi-conformal vectors of $(V,ω)$, respectively, and were used to study duality theory of vertex operator algebras via coset constructions. Using these objects attached to $(V,ω)$, we shall understand the structure of the vertex operator algebra $(V,ω)$. At first, we define the set $\on{Sc}(V,ω)$ of semi-conformal vectors of $V$, then we prove that $\on{Sc}(V,ω)$ is an affine algebraic variety…
We consider C-graded vertex algebras, which are vertex algebras V with a C-grading such that V is an admissible V-module generated by 'lowest weight vectors'. We show that such vertex algebras have a 'good' representation theory in the sense that there is a Zhu algebra A(V) and a bijection between simple admissible V-modules and simple A(V)-modules. We also consider pseudo vertex operator algebras, which are C-graded vertex algebras with a conformal vector such that the homogeneous subspaces of V are generalized eigenspaces for L(0); essentially, these are VOAs that lack any semisimplicity or …
In this article, we describe the trace formulae of composition of several (up to four) adjoint actions of elements of the Lie algebra of a vertex operator algebra by using the Casimir elements. As an application, we give constraints on the central charge and the dimension of the Lie algebra for vertex operator algebras of class $\mathcal{S}^4$. In addition, we classify vertex operator algebras of class $\mathcal{S}^4$ with minimal conformal weight one under some assumptions.
In this paper we classify, under certain restrictions, all homogeneous conformal subalgebras $\goth L$ of a lattice vertex superalgebra $V_Λ$ corresponding to an integer lattice $Λ$. We require that $\goth L$ is graded by an almost finite root system $Δ\subset Λ$ and that $\goth L$ is stable under the action of the Heisenberg conformal algebra $\goth H\subset V_Λ$. We also describe the root systems of these subalgebras. The key ingredient of this classification is an infinite type conformal algebra $\goth K$ obtained by the Tits-Kantor-Koeher construction from a certain Jordan conformal triple…
This paper is a continuation to understand Heisenberg vertex algebras in terms of moduli spaces of their conformal structures. We study the moduli space of the conformal structures on a Heisenberg vertex algebra that have the standard fixed conformal gradation. As we know in Proposition 3.1 in Sect.3, conformal vectors of the Heisenberg vertex algebra $V_{\hatη}(1,0)$ that have the standard fixed conformal gradation is parameterized by a complex vector $h$ of its weight-one subspace. First, we classify all such conformal structures of the Heisenberg vertex algebra $V_{\hatη}(1,0)$ by describin…
I give a short proof of the following algebraic statement: if a vertex algebra is simple, then its underlying Lie conformal algebra is either abelian, or it is an irreducible central extension of a simple Lie conformal algebra.
We classify all the Heisenberg and conformal vectors and determine the full automorphism group of the free bosonic vertex algebra without gradation. To describe it we introduce a notion of inner automorphisms of a vertex algebra.
Based on any chiral vertex operator algebra satisfying a suitable finiteness condition, the semisimplicity of the zero-mode algebra as well as a regularity for induced modules, we construct conformal field theory over the projective line with the chiral vertex operator algebra as symmetries of the theory. We appropriately generalize the argument in [TUY] so that we are able to define sheaves of conformal blocks for chiral vertex operator algebras and study them in detail. We prove the factorization theorem under the fairly general conditions for chiral vertex operator algebras and the zero-mod…
We present explicit global constructions - avoiding power series - of certain chiral CFTs, including current algebras on the projective line. We outline an approach to vertex algebras, inspired by this construction. We construct natural pairings on state spaces.
We provide a complete classification of unitary subalgebras of even rank-one lattice vertex operator algebras. As a consequence of the correspondence between vertex operator algebras and conformal nets, we also obtain a complete classification of conformal subnets of even rank-one lattice conformal nets.
We prove an equivalence between the following notions: (i) unitary Möbius vertex algebras, and (ii) Wightman conformal field theories on the circle (with finite-dimensional conformal weight spaces) satisfying an additional condition that we call uniformly bounded order. Reading this equivalence in one direction, we obtain new analytic and operator-theoretic information about vertex operators. In the other direction we characterize OPEs of Wightman fields and show they satisfy the axioms of a vertex algebra. As an application we establish new results linking unitary vertex operator algebras wit…
We give a general criterion for conformal embeddings of vertex operator algebras associated to affine Lie algebras at arbitrary levels. Using that criterion, we construct new conformal embeddings at admissible rational and negative integer levels. In particular, we construct all remaining conformal embeddings associated to automorphisms of Dynkin diagrams of simple Lie algebras. The semisimplicity of the corresponding decompositions is obtained by using the concept of fusion rules for vertex operator algebras.
We present recent progress in theory of local conformal nets which is an operator algebraic approach to study chiral conformal field theory. We emphasize representation theoretic aspects and relations to theory of vertex operator algebras which gives a different and algebraic formulation of chiral conformal field theory.
We discuss some basic problems and conjectures in a program to construct general orbifold conformal field theories using the representation theory of vertex operator algebras. We first review a program to construct conformal field theories. We also clarify some misunderstandings on vertex operator algebras, modular functors and intertwining operator algebras. Then we discuss some basic open problems and conjectures in mathematical orbifold conformal field theory. Generalized twisted modules and their variants, their constructions and some existence results are reviewed. Twisted intertwining op…
We introduce several definitions within the framework of vertex and conformal algebras which are analogous to some important concepts of the classical Lie theory. Most importantly, we define formal vertex laws, which correspond to the notion of formal group law. We prove suitable vertex/conformal versions of a number of classical results such as the Milnor-Moore theorem, Cartier duality, and the equivalence between formal group laws and Lie algebras.
We propose an extension of the definition of vertex algebras in arbitrary space-time dimensions together with their basic structure theory. An one-to-one correspondence between these vertex algebras and axiomatic quantum field theory (QFT) with global conformal invariance (GCI) is constructed.
We apply an idea of framed vertex operator algebras to a construction of local conformal nets of (injective type III_1) factors on the circle corresponding to various lattice vertex operator algebras and their twisted orbifolds. In particular, we give a local conformal net corresponding to the moonshine vertex operator algebras of Frenkel-Lepowsky-Meurman. Its central charge is 24, it has a trivial representation theory in the sense that the vacuum sector is the only irreducible DHR sector, its vacuum character is the modular invariant J-function and its automorphism group (the gauge group) is…
We show that coinvariants of modules over vertex operator algebras give rise to quasi-coherent sheaves on moduli of stable pointed curves. These generalize Verlinde bundles or vector bundles of conformal blocks defined using affine Lie algebras studied first by Tsuchiya-Kanie, Tsuchiya-Ueno-Yamada, and extend work of a number of researchers. The sheaves carry a twisted logarithmic D-module structure, and hence support a projectively flat connection. We identify the logarithmic Atiyah algebra acting on them, generalizing work of Tsuchimoto for affine Lie algebras.
We develop a calculus of variations for functionals on certain spaces of conformal maps. Such a space Ω is composed of all maps that are conformal on domains containing a fix compact annular set of the Riemann sphere, and that are "sense-preserving". The calculus of variations is based on describing infinitesimal variations of such maps using vector fields. We show that derivatives of all orders with respect to such conformal maps, upon conjugation by an appropriate functional, give rise to the structure of the Virasoro vertex operator algebra. Our construction proceeds in three steps. We firs…
We consider unitary simple vertex operator algebras whose vertex operators satisfy certain energy bounds and a strong form of locality and call them strongly local. We present a general procedure which associates to every strongly local vertex operator algebra V a conformal net A_V acting on the Hilbert space completion of V and prove that the isomorphism class of A_V does not depend on the choice of the scalar product on V. We show that the class of strongly local vertex operator algebras is closed under taking tensor products and unitary subalgebras and that, for every strongly local vertex …
Following the formuation of Borcherds, we develop the theory of (quantum) vertex algebras, including several concrete examples. We also investigate the relationship between the vertex algebra and the chiral algebra due to Beilinson and Drinfeld.
This is the eighth part in a series of papers in which we introduce and develop a natural, general tensor category theory for suitable module categories for a vertex (operator) algebra. In this paper (Part VIII), we construct the braided tensor category structure, using the previously developed results.
Using the Zhu algebra for a certain category of $\mathbb{C}$-graded vertex algebras $V$, we prove that if $V$ is finitely $Ω$-generated and satisfies suitable grading conditions, then $V$ is rational, i.e. has semi-simple representation theory, with one dimensional level zero Zhu algebra. Here $Ω$ denotes the vectors in $V$ that are annihilated by lowering the real part of the grading. We apply our result to the family of rank one Weyl vertex algebras with conformal element $ω_μ$ parameterized by $μ\in \mathbb{C}$, and prove that for certain non-integer values of $μ$, these vertex algebras, wh…
In this paper, a condition making vertex operator superalgebras to be unitary is determined and an analogue of conformal spin-statistics theorem in conformal field theory is proved. As an application of these results, it is proved that under some assumptions there exist vertex operator algebra structures on the direct sum of simple current unitary modules of unitary vertex operator algebras.
In physics, it is believed that the consistency of two dimensional conformal field theory follows from the bootstrap equation. In this paper, we introduce the notion of a full vertex algebra by analyzing the bootstrap equation, which is a "real analytic" generalization of a $\mathbb{Z}$-graded vertex algebra. We also give a mathematical formulation of the consistency of four point correlation functions in two dimensional conformal field theory and prove it for a full vertex algebra with additional assumptions on the conformal symmetry. In particular, we show that the bootstrap equation togethe…
This paper is a natural continuation of our previous work on conformal embeddings of vertex algebras [6], [7], [8]. Here we consider conformal embeddings in simple affine vertex superalgebra $V_k(\mathfrak g)$ where $\mathfrak g=\mathfrak g_{\bar 0}\oplus \mathfrak g_{\bar 1}$ is a basic classical simple Lie superalgebras. Let $\mathcal V_k (\mathfrak g_{\bar 0})$ be the subalgebra of $V_k(\mathfrak g)$ generated by $\mathfrak g_{\bar 0}$. We first classify all levels $k$ for which the embedding $\mathcal V_k (\mathfrak g_{\bar 0})$ in $V_k(\mathfrak g)$ is conformal. Next we prove that, for a…
We prove that a Lie conformal algebra L with bounded locality function is embeddable into an associative conformal algebra A with the same bound on the locality function. If L is nilpotent, then so is A, and the nilpotency index remains the same. We also give a list of open questions concerning the embedding of Lie conformal algebras into associative conformal.
This paper studies certain relations among vertex algebras, vertex Lie algebras and vertex Poisson algebras. In this paper, the notions of vertex Lie algebra (conformal algebra) and vertex Poisson algebra are revisited and certain general construction theorems of vertex Poisson algebras are given. A notion of filtered vertex algebra is formulated in terms of a notion of good filtration and it is proved that the associated graded vector space of a filtered vertex algebra is naturally a vertex Poisson algebra. For any vertex algebra $V$, a general construction and a classification of good filtra…
We introduce notions of open-string vertex algebra, conformal open-string vertex algebra and variants of these notions. These are ``open-string-theoretic,'' ``noncommutative'' generalizations of the notions of vertex algebra and of conformal vertex algebra. Given an open-string vertex algebra, we show that there exists a vertex algebra, which we call the ``meromorphic center,'' inside the original algebra such that the original algebra yields a module and also an intertwining operator for the meromorphic center. This result gives us a general method for constructing open-string vertex algebras…
We generalize the tensor product theory for modules for a vertex operator algebra previously developed in a series of papers by the first two authors to suitable module categories for a ``conformal vertex algebra'' or even more generally, for a "Möbius vertex algebra.'' We do not require the module categories to be semisimple, and we accommodate modules with generalized weight spaces. As in the earlier series of papers, our tensor product functors depend on a complex variable, but in the present generality, the logarithm of the complex variable is involved. This first part is devoted to the st…
We generalize the tensor product theory for modules for a vertex operator algebra previously developed in a series of papers by the first two authors to suitable module categories for a ''conformal vertex algebra'' or even more generally, for a "Möbius vertex algebra.'' We do not require the module categories to be semisimple, and we accommodate modules with generalized weight spaces. As in the earlier series of papers, our tensor product functors depend on a complex variable, but in the present generality, the logarithm of the complex variable is required; the general representation theory of…
This is an expository article invited for the ``Commentary'' section of PNAS in connection with Y.-Z. Huang's article, ``Vertex operator algebras, the Verlinde conjecture, and modular tensor categories,'' appearing in the same issue of PNAS. Huang's solution of the mathematical problem of constructing modular tensor categories from the representation theory of vertex operator algebras is very briefly discussed, along with background material. The hypotheses of the theorems entering into the solution are very general, natural and purely algebraic, and have been verified in a wide range of famil…
We classify certain non-linear Lie conformal algebras with three generators, which can be viewed as deformations of the current Lie conformal algebra of sl_2. In doing so we discover an interesting 1-parameter family of non-linear Lie conformal algebras R_{-1}^d and the corresponding freely generated vertex algebras V_{-1}^d, which includes for d=1 the affine vertex algebra of sl_2 at the critical level k=-2. We construct free-field realizations of the algebras V_{-1}^d extending the Wakimoto realization of the affine vertex algebra of sl_2 at the critical level, and we compute their Zhu algeb…
In this paper, we study Virasoro vertex algebras and affine vertex algebras over a general field of characteristic $p>2$. More specifically, we study certain quotients of the universal Virasoro and affine vertex algebras by ideals related to the $p$-centers of the Virasoro algebra and affine Lie algebras. Among the main results, we classify their irreducible $\mathbb{N}$-graded modules by explicitly determining their Zhu algebras and show that these vertex algebras have only finitely many irreducible $\mathbb{N}$-graded modules and they are $C_2$-cofinite.
Vertex algebras provide an axiomatic algebraic description of the operator product expansion (OPE) of chiral fields in 2-dimensional conformal field theory. Vertex Lie algebras (= Lie conformal algebras) encode the singular part of the OPE, or, equivalently, the commutators of chiral fields. We discuss generalizations of vertex algebras and vertex Lie algebras, which are relevant for higher-dimensional quantum field theory.
We show that certain vertex algebras without vacuum vector may be embedded into vertex algebras. The result is a partial analogue of the simple classical fact that any rng can be embedded into a ring. A one-line proof of the case of a vacuum-free vertex algebra (whose vertex operator map is by definition injective) appeared in Robinson (2010) using a powerful result from the representation theory of vertex algebras as algebras of mutually local weak vertex operators. Here we present a more elementary proof of a somewhat more general case. We also show that our constructions are canonical.
We introduce dg Lie algebras controlling the deformations of vertex algebras and vertex Poisson algebras, utilizing the notion of operadic dg Lie algebra and the theory of chiral algebra. In terms of those dg Lie algebras, we formulate the deformation quantization problem of vertex Poisson algebras to vertex algebras.
In this paper, we study a notion of what we call vertex Leibniz algebra. This notion naturally extends that of vertex algebra without vacuum, which was previously introduced by Huang and Lepowsky. We show that every vertex algebra without vacuum can be naturally extended to a vertex algebra. On the other hand, we show that a vertex Leibniz algebra can be embedded into a vertex algebra if and only if it admits a faithful module. To each vertex Leibniz algebra we associate a vertex algebra without vacuum which is universal to the forgetful functor. Furthermore, from any Leibniz algebra $\g$ we c…
In this paper we introduce a notion of vertex Lie algebra U, in a way a "half" of vertex algebra structure sufficient to construct the corresponding local Lie algebra L(U) and a vertex algebra V(U). We show that we may consider U as a subset of V(U) which generates V(U) and that the vertex Lie algebra structure on U is induced by the vertex algebra structure on V(U). Moreover, for any vertex algebra V a given homomorphism from U to V of vertex Lie algebras extends uniquely to a homomorphism from V(U) to V of vertex algebras. In the second part of paper we study under what conditions on structu…
In present paper, some properties of Hopf action on vertex algebras will be given. We prove that $V#H$ is an $\mathcal{S}$-local vertex algebra but it is not a vertex algebra when $V$ is an $H$-module vertex algebra. In addition, we extend the $\mathcal{S}$-locality to the quantum vertex algebras.
