Quantum Groups, Support Theory, and Conformal Field Theories

This project will establish a new framework that connects the physics of certain two-dimensional physical systems, called conformal field theories (CFTs), with the mathematics of certain well-studied algebraic objects, called quantum groups. Establishing such a connection will greatly advance our understanding of both subjects, and provide novel tools for studying two-dimensional CFTs.

In implementing this project, new research opportunities will be created for undergraduates and early graduate students. These research opportunities will be supported by grant funding. The PI will also provide direct support for preexisting programs which seek to increase access to mathematics among women and underrepresented minorities.

In more detail, one component of the project is to find an equivalence of (ribbon tensor) categories between the representation category of the so-called triplet vertex algebra, and the representation category of small quantum SL(2). Such an equivalence was conjectured by mathematical physicists in the mid-2000’s, and some explicit progress has been made towards its resolution in recent works of the PI and others.

A positive resolution to this conjecture will provide the first direct link between logarithmic CFTs and quantum groups, a phenomenon which should be endemic among the most fundamental classes of logarithmic CFTs. A second component of the project is the computation of the Balmer spectrum for small quantum groups associated to arbitrary simple algebraic groups.

This computation will employ and establish new links between support theory and geometric representation theory.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.