Related papers: A complex structure on the moduli space of rigged …
One of the basic geometric objects in conformal field theory (CFT) is the the moduli space of Riemann surfaces whose $n$ boundaries are ''rigged'' with analytic parametrizations. The fundamental operation is the sewing of such surfaces…
The functorial mathematical definition of conformal field theory was first formulated approximately 30 years ago. The underlying geometric category is based on the moduli space of Riemann surfaces with parametrized boundary components and…
In this paper we give a general family of conformal invariants associated to bordered Riemann surfaces endowed with boundary parametrizations, or equivalently compact surfaces endowed with conformal maps. Each invariant is specified by a…
We consider a 2-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) obtained from twisted compactification of the 4-dimensional N=4 super Yang-Mills theory on a Riemann surface with boundary. We find the boundary conditions to preserve some of the…
CFTs are naturally defined on Riemann surfaces. The rational ones can be solved using methods from algebraic geometry. One particular feature is the covariance of the partition function under the mapping class group. In genus $g=1$, this…
Toda Conformal Field Theories (CFTs hereafter) are generalizations of Liouville CFT where the underlying field is no longer scalar but takes values in a finite-dimensional vector space induced by a complex simple Lie algebra. The goal of…
A mathematical construction of the conformal field theory (CFT) associated to a compact torus, also called the "nonlinear Sigma-model" or "lattice-CFT", is given. Underlying this approach to CFT is a unitary modular functor, the…
We consider bordered Riemann surfaces which are biholomorphic to compact Riemann surfaces of genus g with n regions biholomorphic to the disc removed. We define a refined Teichmueller space of such Riemann surfaces and demonstrate that in…
The partition function of rational conformal field theories (CFTs) on Riemann surfaces is expected to satisfy ODEs of Gauss-Manin type. We investigate the case of hyperelliptic surfaces and derive the ODE system for the $(2,5)$ minimal…
Two-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) can be defined through its correlation functions. These must satisfy certain consistency conditions which arise from the cutting of world sheets along circles or intervals. The construction of a…
We define a kind of moduli space of nested surfaces and mappings, which we call a comparison moduli space. We review examples of such spaces in geometric function theory and modern Teichmueller theory, and illustrate how a wide range of…
This is an invited contribution to the 2nd edition of the Encyclopedia of Mathematical Physics. We review the following algebraic structures which appear in two-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT): The symmetries of two-dimensional…
In 1987 Graeme Segal gave a functorial definition of Conformal Field Theory (CFT) that was designed to capture the mathematical essence of the Conformal Bootstrap formalism pioneered in physics by Belavin-Polyakov-Zamolodchikov. In Segal's…
In this article, we provide a detailed construction and analysis of the mathematical conformal field theory of the free fermion, defined in the sense of Graeme Segal. We verify directly that the operators assigned to disks with two disks…
Two-dimensional conformal field theory is a powerful tool to understand the geometry of surfaces. Here, we study Liouville conformal field theory in the classical (large central charge) limit, where it encodes the geometry of the moduli…
In these notes we explain how the CFT description of random matrix models can be used to perform actual calculations. Our basic example is the hermitian matrix model, reformulated as a conformal invariant theory of free fermions. We give an…
We introduce a simple procedure to integrate differential forms with arbitrary holomorphic poles on Riemann surfaces. It gives rise to an intrinsic regularization of such singular integrals in terms of the underlying conformal geometry.…
As a consequence of the Riemann-Roch theorem, a closed Riemann surface $S$ can be described by a non-singular complex projective algebraic curve $C$. A field of definition for $S$ is any subfield $D$ of $\mathbb{C}$ so that we may choose…
The most basic structure of chiral conformal field theory (CFT) is the Verlinde ring. Freed-Hopkins-Teleman have expressed the Verlinde ring for the CFT's associated to loop groups, as twisted equivariant K-theory. We build on their work to…
In conformal field theory (CFT) on simply connected domains of the Riemann sphere, the natural conformal symmetries under self-maps are extended, in a certain way, to local symmetries under general conformal maps, and this is at the basis…