Modular invariance of characters of vertex operator algebras

Abstract

In contrast with the finite dimensional case, one of the distinguished features in the theory of infinite dimensional Lie algebras is the modular invariance of the characters of certain representations. It is known [Fr], [KP] that for a given affine Lie algebra, the linear space spanned by the characters of the integrable highest weight modules with a fixed level is invariant under the usual action of the modular group SL2(Z). The similar result for the minimal series of the Virasoro algebra is observed in [Ca] and [IZ]. In both cases one uses the explicit character formulas to prove the modular invariance. The character formula for the affine Lie algebra is computed in [K], and the character formula for the Virasoro algebra is essentially contained in [FF]; see [R] for an explicit computation. This mysterious connection between the infinite dimensional Lie algebras and the modular group can be explained by the two dimensional conformal field theory. The highest weight modules of affine Lie algebras and the Virasoro algebra give rise to conformal field theories. In particular, the conformal field theories associated to the integrable highest modules and minimal series are rational. The characters of these modules are understood to be the holomorphic parts of the partition functions on the torus for the corresponding conformal field theories. From this point of view, the role of the modular group SL2(Z) is manifest. In the study of conformal field theory, physicists arrived at the notion of chiral algebras (see e.g. [MS]). Independently, in the attempt to realize the Monster sporadic group as a symmetry group of certain algebraic structure, an infinite dimensional graded representation of the Monster sporadic group, the so called Moonshine module, was constructed in [FLM1]. This algebraic structure was later found in [Bo] and called the vertex algebra; the first axioms of vertex operator algebras were formulated in that paper. The proof that the Moonshine module is a vertex operator algebra and the Monster group acts as its automorphism group was given in [FLM2]. Notably the character of the Moonshine module is also a modular function, namely j(τ) − 744. It turns out that the vertex operator algebra can be regarded as a rigorous mathematical definition of the chiral algebras in the physical literature. And it is expected that a pair of isomorphic vertex operator algebras and their representations (corresponding to the holomorphic and antiholomorphic sectors) are the basic objects needed to build a conformal field theory of a certain type.