Rational conformal field theory with matrix level and strings on a torus

Abstract

Study of the matrix-level affine algebra Um,K is motivated by conformal field theory and the fractional quantum Hall effect. Gannon completed the classification of Um,K modular-invariant partition functions. Here we connect the algebra U2,K to strings on 2-tori describable by rational conformal field theories. As Gukov and Vafa proved, rationality selects the complex-multiplication tori. We point out that the rational conformal field theories describing strings on complex-multiplication tori have characters and partition functions identical to those of the matrix-level algebra Um,K. This connection makes it obvious that the rational theories are dense in the moduli space of strings on Tm, and may prove useful in other ways.