Introduction to Conformal Field Theory - Fall 2013
During the fall semester of 2013, I will teach an introductory course in Conformal Field Theory. This course will start from the basics, and not assume any previous knowledge of conformal field theory. Some basic knowledge about quantum field theory will definitely be helpful, but it is certainly possible to follow this course, and the course FK8017 (also given during the fall of 2013) in parallel.
The course will consist of lectures (once a week, 2 times 45 minutes), as well as exercise sets, which will be provided. For the basics, I will be following (parts of) `Conformal Field Theory', by Di Francesco, P. Mathieu and Sénéchal (Springer, New York, 1997). It is not necessary to buy the book. The more advanced topics covered during the last third of this course will be adjusted according to the interst of the students. For possibilities, see the web-pages for the previous courses: webpage of the 2008 course and webpage of the 2011 course, and the list below. For the more advanced topics, I will hand out additional material.
News
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The last two lectures will deal with fusion rules and the Verlinde formula.
These lectures will be on December 17th, 10:15-12:00 in room A5:1069 and December 19th, 10:15-12:00 in room 122:026. - The lecture on Thursday, oktober 10th will be moved to a later date!
- Here's the link to a (somewhat tacky) video visualizing conformal transformations.
- The lecture on September 26 will be in room A5:1069, the following lectures will be in room 126:026.
- The lecture on Thrusday, September 19 is rescheduled to Friday, September 20, from 10:15-12:00, in room 122:026 (the seminar room of Nordita-west).
Points
This course will be a 7.5 point (ECTS) course. In order to receive credit for the course, one has to hand in the problem sets, and receive a pass on all of them.
Time and place
- Time: Thursday, 10:15 - 12:00
- First lecture: September 12, 2013
- Last lecture: December 19, 2013
- Place: room 126:026 (note: in room A5:1069 on September 26).
Topics covered
The basic topics which will be covered are listed below
- Motivation and introduction to conformal invariance
- The Virasoro algebra
- Free bosons and fermions
- Minimal models: structure and correlation functions
- The Coulomb gas formalism
- Singular vectors and differential equations for correlation functions
- Applications: entanglement entropy and Zamolodchikov's c-theorem
- Anyons and topological phases
- CFT on the torus: Modular invariance and the Verlinde Formula
- Extended symmetries: current algebras and the Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov equation
Lecture notes
The hand-written notes I am using for the lectures (which are just my notes!) will be uploaded to this folder after each lecture.Exercise sets for the course
