Physics Letters B 323 (1994) 316-321

North-HoUand PHYSICS LETTERS B

Remarks on Galois symmetry in rational conformal field theories

A. Coste 1,2
Centre de Physique Thdorique, Ecole Polytechnique, F-91128 Palaiseau Cede& France

and

T. Gannon 3
IHES, 35 route de Chartres, F-91440 Bures sur Yvette, France

Received 27 October 1993

Editor: R. Gatto

We show that a recently discovered Galois symmetry is present in the torus partition function of any rational conformal field
theory, as well as in chiral fusion rings. S matrix elements are linear combinations over Q of roots of unity. An example of
su(2 ) WZNW theory is discussed.

1. I n t r o d u c t i o n
Z= ~ XaXaa~a • (2)
a,aeBxB

This paper aims at applying a well-known, but still In view of SL(2, 7/) modular invariance, one re-
fascinating, mathematical apparatus, i.e. Galois the- quires X is an intertwiner between the unitary rep-
ory [ 1 ] to the classification of a certain class of two resentations defined by S and T matrices on the one
dimensional physical theories, called rational confor- hand, S, 7~ on the other hand, satisfying
mal field theories (RCFT). The Hilbert space ~f of
S2=(ST)3=C, C2_~I~
a RCFT admits a decomposition into a finite number
of blocks: $2= ( g f ) 3 = C, C2=[, (3)

~ = {~ ~aff V a ® ,'V a . ( 1) C and C are called the conjugation involutions.

(a,d)~BxB In appendix B of Ref. [2 ] de Boer and Goeree have
pointed out the role of the number field L generated
Let us denote by a=p the index of the identity
by the quotients ~aj~" (Saj/Spj)adeB and of its Galois
block, corresponding to the unit of the fusion ring.
group Gal (L/Q). They start from the following data:
We assume Va and xTaare irreducible representations
- S is symmetric and unitary, the 2~o's are real and
of algebras A, A; ( ® , means that central extension
non zero.
parts of A and A are identified). B and B are the fi-
- The chiral Verlinde formula holds, which implies
nite sets of such representations occurring in ( 1 ). ~4~a
that, for a fixed, these quotients are the eigenvalues
is the non negative integral matrix encoding multi-
of the left regular representation of the fusion ring,
plicities of isotypic blocks. The partition function on
i.e. roots of the characteristic polynomial
a torus reads:
det(M-Na), where Na is the fusion matrix between
chiral A-primary fields:
On leave from CPT Luminy, France.
2 E-mail address: coste@orphee.polytechnique.fr. (Na)Cb=N~ab, ~O~q~b=~ N~o~O~. (4)
3 E-mail address: gannon@ihes.fr. c

316 Elsevier Science B.V.

SSDI 0370-2693 ( 93 )E 1614-4
Volume 323, number 3,4
Although such a chiral Verlinde formula comes from
the possibility of building some diagonal theory, we
do not consider such a theory before section 3. The
point is that its existence implies equations with in-
teger coefficients satisfied by S, which is all we use
here.
- There is a group morphism from G a l ( L / Q ) to per-
mutations of the set B which sends any Galois auto-
morphism g t o a b i j e c t i o n j ~ g ( j ) of B such that
g( S d &j) =s,~v)/ &~u~ .
They proved that Gal ( L / Q ) is abelian, implying that
the normal extension L is included in a cyclotomic
field, and also
(So)2eL g((Su) 2) = (Sigu)):.
We will generalize a bit their analysis by considering
the extension M of Q generated by all S~y elements.
Let us show first that we still have M normal with
respect to Q and G a l ( M / Q ) abelian, so that we shall
be in the typical situation of the Galois fundamental
theorem [ I ] where the existence of a surjective re-
striction of Gal ( M / Q ) --, Gal ( L / Q ) insures that we
do not lose any of our symmetries when reasoning in
the bigger field.
Let a be any Q-automorphism of a field containing
M. Necessarily a ( L ) = L; this is because L is gener-
ated by the complete set of roots 2~ of some polyno-
mials in Q [X]; a(aai) remains a root, thus still lies
in L. We can therefore define g to be the restriction
of a to L and denote g(j) = j " for any j e B. Then
(a(Su))2=a((Su)2)=g((S,j)2)=(Siy.) 2,
and there exists a set of signs E~(j) = _+ 1 such that
tT( Spj ) = t~a(j ) Spja .
They are unambiguously defined since Spy is non zero.
Then
tT( Sij ) = a( SpySu/ Spj ) --- a( Spj ) g( Sij/ Spj )
= ¢~(j')&a, = e~( i ) & v ,
the last equality coming from the symmetry of S. Thus
for any x e M , a ( x ) e M , i.e. M is a normal extension
of Q.
It is now easy to derive the commutativity of
G a I ( M / Q ) by comparing
PHYSICS LETTERSB 17 March 1994
aa'(So)=e.,(l')a(Sij.,)=e,,(i)E,,,(j)Si.j., (10)
and
a'a(So.) = ~ ( i ) a ' ( S i v ) =~(i)e~,(j)Siv~. ( 11 )
Note also
¢~,(i) = E~(i)~,~,(U) =e~,(i)e~(U'). (12)
A similar construction holds for S leading to signs
~o(D and to the normal field lVl. Furthermore one can
(5) consider the field M.lVl generated by all elements of
S and & it is easily seen to be normal over Q with
again an abelian Galois group. Kronecker and We-
her's theorem [ 1 ] insures that it is included in a cy-
clotomic field, therefore the matrix elements of S and
(6) are combinations of roots of unity with rational
coefficients. In the following arguments we take a to
be a Q-automorphism of the field M.IVl.
2. Galois symmetry of the torus matrix
Since ~/" has integer elements, applying any auto-
morphism a to (SY)i~= (X~q)~ leads to
£ ~fy~,,(f)~oe=Ea(i) £ &v~'ju
f J
f
The invertibility of ~qleads to the conclusion:
(7)
~.f.=~,,(i)g,,(f)~-. (13)
This symmetry, in the special case of Wess-Zumino-
(8) Novikov-Witten (WZNW) theories, has been dis-
covered and discussed by one of the authors (T.G.)
[ 3 ] under the name "parity rule" in the context of
lattice methods and by Ruelle, Thiran, Weyers [4 ]
under the name "arithmetical symmetry" in the con-
(9) text of commutants of Kac-Moody modular trans-
formations. These works have shown its usefulness
for the classification of R C F T ' s [ 5 ].
The main significance of (13) is that, because
X>~ 0, Xo> 0 can only occur when e~(i) = E~0') for all
a's. This turns out to be an extremely powerful selec-
tion rule.
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Volume 323, number 3,4 PHYSICSLETTERSB 17 March 1994

Set
Na,,=E.(a)~,,(p)GzI NaG.N:, . (19)
(G.)~, = ¢~(b)J~,o, (14)
Since Na=L taking a=p"-' shows us that Np,, is al-
G~=L G.o,=G,,G,,, (15) ways invertible. The matrices
tells us that representation G defines an action of the M.,a =~..(a)e,~(p)Na,,(Npo) -1 (20)
Galois group on the space of characters.
I f we factorize G,,=G'G", where (G.)~'b = live in an adjoint representation
¢.(a) jb and (G'd) b = jab, then this selection rule says M,,,a =GztMI,aG,.. (21)
that X m u s t also commute with all G~, and G~ in the
non-heterotic case. These equations mean that the above Galois repre-
sentation completely determines the fusion matrices
Na once the following are given: all the signs e.(a),
3. Symmetry of fusion rules the matrices Np,, for all the tr's and a collection
(Na)a~D where D is a set of representatives of the
Consider the chiral fusion algebra [ 6 ] introduced Galois orbits in B.
in eq. (4) and, as a start, apply any e to Verlinde's If Ngb=Cab= (S2)ab holds, (9) leads to another
formula [ 7 ]: relation:

Sajabj ~.~ cScj NP c,b.=E,,( a )~.( b )NPab . (22)

S,,j S, j - ceBNab~pj, (16)
We would like to emphasize that relating this chiral
The image of the LHS is N~b to the physical fusion tensor N~ab6 as in WZNW
theories [ 8 ], assumes that A = A, is the maximal al-
S,,,,jSb~j gebra of the theory. This is a big restriction, even if it
¢.(a)~,,(b) (Sp,,j)2
is of great interest to have as many explicit results as
possible in this case [ 9 ].
=¢.(a)¢.(b) ~ Naeb.spj

4. Kac-Moody case
:,.(a),.(b) ~c N~a**b°~,.S.,/

whereas the image of the RHS is
E,,(c) St,,:
~ N~b ¢~,(p~ Sp~"
Equating these two images gives
( ~( c ) e,,(p )
=0.
Contract with ( S - 1)ja*:
d-
N.ob¢= v c~(c)~o(p)_ ~_
E~,(a)e,,(b) N ab,..~cOj~pJ
= 5 " E,,(c)~,,(p) N~ Na ~po
Furthermore (18) reads
For the WZNW theories, which are based on an
affine Kac-Moody algebra ~, at level k, the K a c -
Peterson formula [ 10] gives an explicit expression
for the S-matrix when g is simple:
(
Sab"~- nr/2%/'~ w~W2e(w) exp - 2 r d w(a).bn )
= ¢¢'Sab, (23)
(17) where n = k + h v, IR v I is the determinant of the co-
root lattice, IIA+II is the number of positive (horizon-
tal) roots of g, r = r a n k ( g ) , W is the (horizontal) Weyl
S_~ group of g, and ~(w) is the sign, or determinant, of w.
,~ For later convenience let ¢g denote the constant fac-
tor in front of (23), and Sat,the sum. The set B here
(18) consists of p + P+ (~, k), where P+ (~, k) is the hori-
zontal projection of the dominant highest weights of
at level k, and is a finite subset of the dual lattice

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Volume 323, number 3,4 PHYSICS LETTERSB
R ~*. When g is semi-simple, its S-matrix is the tensor
product of those for its summands.
We shall see below that, for any integer N, ~ is
contained in the cyclotomic field Q((4N), where
(m = exp (2in/m). Using this, we find that S,~,e Q (~z.),
for L = 4 n l R ~ I. Indeed, the dual lattice R ~* dilated
by the scalar IRVl = IIR~*/R ~ II is contained in R ~,
which implies IR~ I w ( a ) . b is an integer. Hence the
sum Sab is in Q ((~lR~l) c Q ((L). The factor ~ in
front can be written as a rational number times the
square root of ~ IR ~ I or ~ R ~ I, depending
on the values of IIA+I1and m (mod 2). In either case,
this factor lies in Q((L)-
Again, from the Galois fundamental theorem [ 1 ],
the Galois group Gal ( M / Q ) of the field M generated
by these Sab, is simply the restriction of Gal (Q((z) /
Q) to M. Also, there is natural morphism
G a I ( Q ( ( L ) / © ) - - - Z [ , given by 2/(~L)=~/. There-
fore, for each a e G a l ( M / Q ) there exists an l such that
a equals 2t restricted to M.
We would like to explicitly compute the bijection
a-,a ~ and the parity ~,(a), in this affine case. First,
we recall [ 10 ] that any weight a s R ~* can be written
as
a=w(a+ ) +net, (24)
where wsW, otsR ~, and a t o P + (~, n). When a t ac-
tually lies in the interior o f P t (~, n) which is identi-
fied to B, then the decomposition (24) is unique. This
is the case we are interested in. Then define [a] + = a t
and e(a) = e ( w ) .
Choose any a e G a I ( M / Q ) which is the restrition
o f a 2t with l a representative of Z[. One knows l de-
fines a bijection on B, given by a ~ [la] +. We shall
see that a°= [la]+. Indeed, a(aab)=tT(~)'E(la)
•SUaltb can be read off from (23) and (24). Since
~ s Q , then ( a ( ~ ) )2= ~2, so t r ( ~ ) = ~ . ~ for some
sign e~ s { + 1}. Thus from (9) we get both
aO=[la]+ and ~,,(a)=e".¢(la). (25)
It suffices to find e~'. Let us compute the action of tr
on square roots (remember l is coprime with
L = 4n IR ~ I )- First note that
[ 2iM'~
= )=exp,-T)
= (- 1)(~-°'i. (26)
17 March 1994
Also, if 8 divides L, one has to consider
v ~ = e x p ( 2 i n / 8 ) + e x p ( - 2 i n / 8 ) , so that tr(v/2) =
(__1)(12-1)/8. /r2.
Now letp be any odd prime, and assume 4p divides
L. Then we get the following Gauss sum [ 1 ]:
~/p= K j~
"'G)
"=1 (J, (27)
where x = 1 i f p = 1 m o d 4 and x = - i ifp~-3 mod4;
if we take for (6) the Jacobi symbol, which extends
Legendre's one to non prime, odd, denominators, we
then see, by multiplicability, that
tr(x/ ) = (-1 ) (t- I)(P-
(28)
Putting all this together, write cKas a rational number
times x / ~ i r, for some integer N = 2 ~2 ~jpj, where the
pj are distinct odd primes. Then
E~- ~ = - - .
The above results all continue to apply in the semi-
simple case g=g~E)...~gs. The parity ~(al...as) then
equals the product e~(al )...co(as).
In the usual, non-heterotic WZNW case, ~ does
not contribute to (13). Indeed, the initial statements
of the parity rule/arithmetical symmetry [3,4] in-
volved only ~(la) ~(lb). However, in the heterotic
WZNW case, the ~ may not cancel. That is precisely
what is found in Ref. [ 11 ], where the parity rule for
heterotic WZNW is given; along with f(la)e(lb) an-
other factor is required, defined there using "null
augments". This extra factor equals f~ ~~, though it
is expressed considerably differently.
So in the W Z N W case, eq. (13) is completely
equivalent to the known results. Of course, it also ap-
plies in a much broader context.
One final remark can be made. The proof of (13)
requires the assumption that X be a rational matrix.
However, for any semi-simple g it has been shown
(see Refs. [ 12,3,4] ) that the commutant, the space
of all complex matrices X commuting with S and T,
has a basis consisting of integral matrices. Thus, at
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Volume 323, number 3,4 PHYSICS LETTERS B 17 March 1994

least for the affine case, (13) applies to any X in the matrices (in the regular representation of the fusion
commutant. ring) are

N 1 =[,

5. Fusion rules symmetry for s ~ ) k

N2= 0 0 1
1 0
The horizontal parts of integrable su('~ ) k integra- 1 0
ble highest weights are A =A~/l~ where A 1 = 2 j e {0, 1,
.... k} is the n u m b e r of boxes in the corresponding
Young tableau (A~= 0 being the trivial su (2) repre- N3 = 1 l 0
sentation),j is the spin of the representation, #1 is the 0 1
fundamental weight. The relationship with the labell- 0 1
ing of section 4 is p=A + p~. Let us identify vector p
and integer A~ + 1.
The fusion rules are [ 8,13 ] N4 = 0 0 1 (32)
1 0 "
n - - I -- I n - - p - - q l
0 0
a.C'q= r=
Z
IP-ql + 1
¢',
The Galois generator is represented by
p+q-- 1--2~(p+q--n)
= ~ @r, (30)
r ~ IP--ql + I
-1 0 0
where p, q, r e B = { 1 , ..., n - l } , r=p+q+l mod2, G3= 0 0 0 - " (33)
n=k+2. 0 0 1
~/=0 ifp+q<n, G3 is of order 4 like 3 m o d 10. (18) means that these
matrices satisfy
t/=l if2n>p+q>.n. (31)
N4 =G3N2G3N3, I= (G3N3) 2 . (34)
Since by simply looking at (30) it is not obvious to
convince oneself that it satisfies (18) as it should, we Clearly these objects deserve further investigations.
felt it useful to look at an explicit example, i.e.
SU~) 3"
At level 3 there are four weights in B, let us denote Acknowledgement
them by p = 1, 2, 3, 4. The Galois group is here iso-
morphic to (ZTo, × ) = ({1, - 1, 3, - 3 } , x ) --- (Z4, We thank C. Itzykson for bringing to light the Gal-
+ ). Considering for instance the action of the gen- ois nature of these symmetries, as well as D. Altschu-
erator a3 we have the contents of Table 1. ler, M. Bauer, L. B6gin, D. Bernard, P. di Francesco,
The orbit o f p = p = 1 under a3 is thus {1, 3); this P. Roche, E. Thiran, J.B. Zuber for fruitful discus-
suggests to take as a basis the primary fields in the sions. A.C. thanks CPT Ecole Polytechnique and J.
following order: (~1, ~3, ~2, ~4) then the fusion Lascoux for scientific help and kind hospitality. T.G.
thanks for the kind hospitality of the IHES.
Table 1

p 3p mod 10 p¢ ca(p)
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