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arXiv · hep-th/9709143

Conformally Invariant Path Integral Formulation of the Wess-Zumino-Witten $\to$ Liouville Reduction

L. O'Raifeartaigh·V. V. Sreedhar
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Abstract

The path integral description of the Wess-Zumino-Witten $\to$ Liouville reduction is formulated in a manner that exhibits the conformal invariance explicitly at each stage of the reduction process. The description requires a conformally invariant generalization of the phase space path integral methods of Batalin, Fradkin, and Vilkovisky for systems with first class constraints. The conformal anomaly is incorporated in a natural way and a generalization of the Fradkin-Vilkovisky theorem regarding gauge independence is proved. This generalised formalism should apply to all conformally invariant reductions in all dimensions. A previous problem concerning the gauge dependence of the centre of the Virasoro algebra of the reduced theory is solved.

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L. O'Raifeartaigh, V. V. Sreedhar. 1997-09-19. Conformally Invariant Path Integral Formulation of the Wess-Zumino-Witten $\to$ Liouville Reduction. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0550-3213(98)00049-2

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