David Ben-Zvi, UT-Austin

"Vertex algebras towards Higgs branches II"

Abstract: We'll give an introduction to the theory of vertex algebras. We will think of vertex algebras as a "holomorphic looped analog" of associative algebras, and explore the looping and delooping operations. Vertex algebras provide a mathematical formulation for the structure of chiral or holomorphic observables in two-dimensional conformal field theories, and more generally, observables in higher dimensional field theories that depend holomorphically on one complex dimension. The talks are motivated by the vertex algebras recently attached to 4d N=2 gauge theories by Beem, Rastelli and van Baes which provide a "looped version" of their Higgs branches.