Title: Nodal degeneration of chiral algebras and the Verlinde formula
Abstract: Chiral algebras describe families of operators over algebraic curves. They were introduced by Beilinson and Drinfeld as an algebro-geometric generalization of vertex operator algebras, a mathematical model for the space of local observables in a two-dimensional conformal field theory. For a vertex operator algebra V and an algebraic curve X, one associates a vector space of global observables, known as the space of conformal blocks, which has important applications in geometric representation theory and algebraic geometry. A conjecture by Verlinde, later proven by Tsuchiya-Ueno-Yamada and Damiolini-Gibney-Tarasca, gives an excision formula for the computation of this space. In this talk, I will describe a partial generalization of this story to the case of chiral algebras and their global counterpart, given by the chiral homology complex.
Elchanan Nafcha
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