On Representations of Conformal Field Theories and the Construction of Orbifolds

We consider representations of meromorphic bosonic chiral conformal field theories, and demonstrate that such a representation is completely specified by a state within the theory. The necessary and sufficient conditions upon this state are derived, and, because of their form, we show that we may extend the representation to a representation of a suitable larger conformal field theory. In particular, we apply this procedure to the lattice (FKS) conformal field theories, and deduce that Dong’s proof of the uniqueness of the twisted representation for the reflection-twisted projection of the Leech lattice conformal field theory generalises to an arbitrary even (self-dual) lattice. As a consequence, we see that the reflection-twisted lattice theories of [1] are truly self-dual, extending the analogies with the theories of lattices and codes which were being pursued. Some comments are also made on the general concept of the definition of an orbifold of a conformal field theory in relation to this point of view. January-December 1995: visiting Department of Physics and Mathematical Physics, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia