A logarithmic generalization of tensor product theory for modules for a vertex operator alg.pdfVIP

a r X i v : m a t h / 0 3 1 1 2 3 5 v 3 [ m a t h .Q A ] 2 8 S e p 2 0 0 6 A logarithmic generalization of tensor product theory for modules for a vertex operator algebra Yi-Zhi Huang, James Lepowsky and Lin Zhang Abstract We describe a logarithmic tensor product theory for certain module categories for a “conformal vertex algebra.” In this theory, which is a natural, although intricate, generalization of earlier work of Huang and Lepowsky, we do not require the module categories to be semisimple, and we accommodate modules with generalized weight spaces. The cor- responding intertwining operators contain logarithms of the variables. 1 Introduction In this paper, we present a generalization of the tensor product theory devel- oped by the first two authors in [HL1]–[HL5], [H1] and [H2] to a logarithmic tensor product theory for certain module categories for a “conformal vertex al- gebra.” We focus on explaining new results and sophisticated techniques in this logarithmic theory, rather than on the full details of the proofs, which are being presented in a longer paper [HLZ]. Logarithmic structure in conformal field theory was first introduced by physi- cists to describe disorder phenomena [Gu]. A lot of progress has been made by physicists on this subject. We refer the interested reader to review articles [Ga], [F] and [RT] (and references therein). Such structures also arise naturally in the representation theory of vertex operator algebras. In fact, in the construction of intertwining operator algebras, the first author proved (see [H2]) that if mod- ules for the vertex operator algebra satisfy a certain cofiniteness condition, then products of the usual intertwining operators satisfy certain systems of differen- tial equations with regular singular points. In addition, it was proved in [H2] that if the vertex operator algebra satisfies certain finite reductivity conditions, then the analytic extensions of products of the usual intertwining operators have n