Two Dimensional Conformal Field Theory and a Primer to Chiral Algebras

Abstract

We review various aspects of two dimensional conformal field theories paying close attention to the algebraic structures that intervene. We provide a compact description regarding the appearance of a chiral algebra as the symmetry algebra related to local conformal symmetry, namely the Virasoro algebra. We then introduce two dimensional conformal field theories with additional symmetries in which extended chiral algebras emerge as a natural generalization of the conformal case.

66 pages, 3 figures