Conformal edge currents in Chern-Simons theories

Journal Article · Thu Jul 30 04:00:00 EDT 1992 · International Journal of Modern Physics A; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1142/S0217751X92002106· OSTI ID:7172774

Balachandran, A P; Bimonte, G; Gupta, K S ^[1]; Stern, A ^[2]

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1. Syracuse Univ., NY (United States). Dept. of Physics
2. Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche dell'Universita di Napoli, Mostra d'Oltremare pad. 19, 80125 Napoli (IT)

In this paper, the authors develop elementary canonical methods for the quantization of Abelian and non-Abelian Chern-Simons actions, using well-known ideas in gauge theories and quantum gravity. The authors' approach does not involve choice of gauge or clever manipulations of functional integrals. When the spatial slice is a disc, it yields Witten's edge states carrying a representation of the Kac-Moody algebra. The canonical expressions for the generators of diffeomorphisms on the boundary of the disc are also found, and it is established that they are the Chern-Simons version of the Sugawara construction. This paper is a prelude to the authors' future publications on edge states, sources, vertex operators, and their spin and statistics in 3D and 4D topological field theories.

• OSTI ID: 7172774
• Journal Information: International Journal of Modern Physics A; (United States), Journal Name: International Journal of Modern Physics A; (United States) Vol. 7:19; ISSN IMPAE; ISSN 0217-751X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661100 -- Classical & Quantum Mechanics-- (1992-)
662110* -- General Theory of Particles & Fields-- Theory of Fields & Strings-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ALGEBRA
ANGULAR MOMENTUM
CONFORMAL GROUPS
FIELD THEORIES
FUNCTIONS
GAUGE INVARIANCE
INTEGRALS
INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES
LIE GROUPS
MATHEMATICS
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
QUANTIZATION
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
QUANTUM GRAVITY
SPIN
STATISTICS
SYMMETRY GROUPS
TOPOLOGY
VERTEX FUNCTIONS