Canonical approach to the WZNW model

Abstract

The chiral Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witten (WZNW) model provides the simplest class of rational conformal field theories which exhibit a non-abelian braid-group statistics and an associated "quantum symmetry". The canonical derivation of the Poisson-Lie symmetry of the classical chiral WZNW theory (originally studied by Faddeev, Alekseev, Shatashvili and Gawedzki, among others) is reviewed along with subsequent work on a covariant quantization of the theory which displays its quantum group symmetry.