arXiv subjects

James Lepowsky

Publications and source records attributed to James Lepowsky.

40 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv1995

A theory of tensor products for module categories for a vertex operator algebra, II

This is the second part in a series of papers presenting a theory of tensor products for module categories for a vertex operator algebra. In Part I (hep-th/9309076), the notions of $P(z)$- and $Q(z)$-tensor product of two modules for a vertex operator algebra were introduced and under a certain hypothesis, two constructions of a $Q(z)$-tensor product were given, using certain results stated without proof. In Part II, the proofs of those results are supplied.

hep-th↗

arXiv1994

Realizations of the Monster Lie algebra

We study aspects of the theory of generalized Kac-Moody Lie algebras (or Borcherds algebras) and their standard modules. It is shown how such an algebra with no mutually orthogonal imaginary simple roots, including Borcherds' Monster Lie algebra $\frak m$, can be naturally constructed from a certain Kac-Moody subalgebra and a module for it. We observe that certain generalized Verma (induced) modules for generalized Kac-Moody algebras are standard modules and hence irreducible. In particular, starting from the moonshine module for the Monster group $M$, we construct a certain $\{frak gl}_2$- and $M$-module, the tensor algebra over which carries a natural structure of irreducible module for $\frak m$, which is realized as an explicitly prescribed $M$-covariant Lie algebra of operators on this tensor algebra. The existence of large free subalgebras of $\frak m$ is further exploited to provide a simplification of Borcherds' proof of the Conway-Norton conjectures for the McKay-Thompson series of the moonshine module. The coefficients of these series are shown to satisfy natural recursion relations (replication formulas) equivalent to, but different from, those obtained by Borcherds.

hep-th↗

arXiv1994

Tensor products of modules for a vertex operator algebra and vertex tensor categories

We introduce the main concepts and announce the main results in a theory of tensor products for module categories for a vertex operator algebra. This theory is being developed in a series of papers including hep-th 9309076 and hep-th 9309159. The theory applies in particular to any ``rational'' vertex operator algebra for which products of intertwining operators are known to be convergent in the appropriate regions, including the vertex operator algebras associated with the WZNW models, the minimal models and the moonshine module for the Monster. In this paper, we provide background and motivation; we present the main constructions and properties of the tensor product operation associated with a particular element of a suitable moduli space of spheres with punctures and local coordinates; we introduce the notion of ``vertex tensor category,'' analogous to the notion of tensor category but based on this moduli space; and we announce the results that the category of modules for a vertex operator algebra of the type mentioned above admits a natural vertex tensor category structure, and also that any vertex tensor category naturally produces a braided tensor category structure.

hep-th↗

arXiv1993

Vertex operator algebras and operads

Vertex operator algebras are mathematically rigorous objects corresponding to chiral algebras in conformal field theory. Operads are mathematical devices to describe operations, that is, $n$-ary operations for all $n$ greater than or equal to $0$, not just binary products. In this paper, a reformulation of the notion of vertex operator algebra in terms of operads is presented. This reformulation shows that the rich geometric structure revealed in the study of conformal field theory and the rich algebraic structure of the theory of vertex operator algebras share a precise common foundation in basic operations associated with a certain kind of (two-dimensional) ``complex'' geometric object, in the sense in which classical algebraic structures (groups, algebras, Lie algebras and the like) are always implicitly based on (one-dimensional) ``real'' geometric objects. In effect, the standard analogy between point-particle theory and string theory is being shown to manifest itself at a more fundamental mathematical level.

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