Recent Progress in Irrational Conformal Field Theory

Abstract

In this talk, I will review the foundations of irrational conformal field theory (ICFT), which includes rational conformal field theory as a small subspace. Highlights of the review include the Virasoro master equation, the Ward identities for the correlators of ICFT and solutions of the Ward identities. In particular, I will discuss the solutions for the correlators of the $g/h$ coset constructions and the correlators of the affine-Sugawara nests on $g\supset h_1 \supset \ldots \supset h_n$. Finally, I will discuss the recent global solution for the correlators of all the ICFT's in the master equation.Comment: 16 pages, Latex, UCB-PTH-93/25, LBL-34610, talk presented at the conference "Strings 1993", Berkeley, May 23-2