Introduction To Vertex Operator Superalgebras And Their Modules

This book presents a systematic study on the structures of vertex operator superalgebras and their modules. Related theories of self-dual codes and lattices are included, as well as recent achievements on classifications of certain simple vertex operator superalgebras and their irreducible twisted modules, constructions of simple vertex operator superalgebras from graded associative algebras and their anti-involutions, self-dual codes and lattices. Audience: This book is of interest to researchers and graduate students in mathematics and mathematical physics.

* 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 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 yields 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 $D^{(1)}_n$. 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 $D_4$-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, Griess, and $E_8$ algebras and explain some of their similarities. A third goal is to provide a purely spinor construction of the exceptional affine Lie algebra $E^{(1)}_8$, 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 a spinor construction of vertex operator algebras, modules, and intertwining operators with nontrivial monodromies.

The articles in this book are based on talks given at the international conference 'Lie algebras, vertex operator algebras and their applications'. The focus of the papers is mainly on Lie algebras, quantum groups, vertex operator algebras and their applications to number theory, combinatorics and conformal field theory.

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.

This monograph deals with two aspects of the theory of elliptic genus: its topological aspect involving elliptic functions, and its representation theoretic aspect involving vertex operator super-algebras. For the second aspect, elliptic genera are shown to have the structure of modules over certain vertex operator super-algebras. The vertex operators corresponding to parallel tensor fields on closed Riemannian Spin Kähler manifolds such as Riemannian tensors and Kähler forms are shown to give rise to Virasoro algebras and affine Lie algebras. This monograph is chiefly intended for topologists and it includes accounts on topics outside of topology such as vertex operator algebras.

This book contains the proceedings of the 2012–2014 Southeastern Lie Theory Workshop Series held at North Carolina State University in April 2012, at College of Charleston in December 2012, at Louisiana State University in May 2013, and at University of Georgia in May 2014. Some of the articles by experts in the field survey recent developments while others include new results in representations of Lie algebras, and quantum groups, vertex (operator) algebras and Lie superalgebras.

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.