Vertex Operator Algebras and the Monster (Volume 134) (Pure and Applied Mathematics, Volume 134) - Hardcover

Frenkel, Igor; Lepowsky, James; Meurman, Arne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0122670655 ISBN 13: 9780122670657

Publisher: Academic Press, 1989

Synopsis

This work is motivated by and develops connections between several branches of mathematics and physics--the theories of Lie algebras, finite groups and modular functions in mathematics, and string theory in physics. The first part of the book presents a new mathematical theory of vertex operator algebras, the algebraic counterpart of two-dimensional holomorphic conformal quantum field theory. The remaining part constructs the Monster finite simple group as the automorphism group of a very special vertex operator algebra, called the "moonshine module" because of its relevance to "monstrous moonshine."

About this title

Review

This book is a detailed research monograph which contains the complete proofs of the authors' previously announced results. It is mostly self-contained and the exposition, given the technicalities involved, could not have been any better. It will be an asset to research mathematicians as well as physicists, and certainly deserves a place in every mathematics and physics library.
--MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS
The present book shows how this group arises as the symmetry group of a certain vertex-operator algebra....'One fact, however, is undeniable. As the automorphism group of a distinguished conformal field theory, the Monster is fundamentally related to one of the most spectacular chapters of modern theoretical physics--string theroy.'
--N.J.A. SLoane, AT&T Laboratories quoted in AMERICAN SCIENTIST

Edition details

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0122670655
• ISBN 13: 9780122670657
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 508