NONARCHIMEDEAN CONFORMAL FIELD THEORIES

Abstract

We present a general formalism for conformal field theories defined on a non-Archimedean field. Such theories are defined by complex-valued correlation functions of fields of a [Formula: see text]-adic variable. Conformal invariance is imposed by requiring the correlation functions to be unchanged under fractional linear transformations, the latter forming the full analogue of the conformal group in two-dimensional, euclidean space-time. All fields in the theory can be taken to be "primary", under the "non-Archimedean conformal group". The conformal symmetry fixes completely the form of all correlation functions, once we are given the weight-spectrum of the theory and the OPE coefficients (which must be the structure constants of certain commutative, associative algebras). We explicitly construct non-Archimedean CFT's having the same weight spectrum as that of Archimedean models of central charge c < 1. The OPE coefficients of these "local" Archimedean and non-Archimedean models are related by adelic formulae.