Algebra/Topology Seminar

Speaker: Nivedita

Title: Chiral Conformal Field Theories

Abstract: Two-dimensional chiral CFTs are closely related to three-dimensional TQFTs by a bulk-boundary correspondence. Unitary chiral CFTs admit three distinct mathematical formulations: in terms of unitary Vertex Operator Algebras (VOAs), Conformal Nets, and the Segal (functorial) approach, where they appear as projective representations of the conformal cobordism category. We present progress toward constructing a fully extended functorial field theory description of chiral CFTs, focusing on assignment for points and 1 dimensional cobordisms. We also introduce models for functional analytic higher target categories 2-Hilb and 3-Hilb that play a critical role in the construction.