English

Non-unitary Wightman CFTs and non-unitary vertex algebras

Mathematical Physics 2025-07-29 v2 math.MP Quantum Algebra

Abstract

We give an equivalence of categories between: (i) M\"obius vertex algebras which are equipped with a choice of generating family of quasiprimary vectors, and (ii) (not-necessarily-unitary) M\"obius-covariant Wightman conformal field theories on the unit circle. We do not impose any technical restrictions on the theories considered (such as finite-dimensional conformal weight spaces or simplicity), yielding the most general equivalence between these two axiomatizations of two-dimensional chiral conformal field theory. This provides new opportunities to study non-unitary vertex algebras using the lens of algebraic conformal field theory and operator algebras, which we demonstrate by establishing a non-unitary version of the Reeh-Schlieder theorem.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.08454,
  title  = {Non-unitary Wightman CFTs and non-unitary vertex algebras},
  author = {Sebastiano Carpi and Christopher Raymond and Yoh Tanimoto and James E. Tener},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.08454},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

46 pages. Version 2 has minor revisions to match the published version