Factorization Algebras in Quantum Field Theory

Description

Factorization algebras are local-to-global objects that play a role in classical and quantum field theory that is similar to the role of sheaves in geometry: they conveniently organize complicated information. Their local structure encompasses examples like associative and vertex algebras; in these examples, their global structure encompasses Hochschild homology and conformal blocks. In the first volume of this set, the authors develop the theory of factorization algebras in depth, with a focus upon examples exhibiting their use in field theory, such as the recovery of a vertex algebra from a chiral conformal field theory and a quantum group from Abelian Chern-Simons theory. In the second volume, they show how factorization algebras arise from interacting field theories, both classical and quantum, and how they encode essential information such as operator product expansions, Noether currents, and anomalies.

Kevin Costello is Krembil William Rowan Hamilton Chair in Theoretical Physics at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Canada. He is an honorary member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He has won several awards, including the Berwick Prize of the London Mathematical Society (2017) and the Eisenbud Prize of the American Mathematical Society (2020). Owen Gwilliam is Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.