Quantum Group Generators in Conformal Field Theory

These are notes of a seminar given at the 30th International Symposium on the Theory of Elementary Particles, Berlin-Buckow, August 1996. The material is derived from collaborations with E. Cremmer and J.-L. Gervais, and C. Klimcik, and is partially new. Within the general framework of Poisson-Lie symmetry, we discuss two approaches to the problem of constructing moment maps, or q-deformed Noether charges, that generate the quantum group symmetry which appears in many conformal field theories. Concretely, we consider the case of $U_q(sl(2))$ and the operator algebra that describes Liouville theory and other models built from integer powers of screenings in the Coulomb gas picture.