Twisted modules and $G$-equivariantization in logarithmic conformal field theory

Abstract

A two-dimensional chiral conformal field theory can be viewed mathematically as the representation theory of its chiral algebra, a vertex operator algebra. Vertex operator algebras are especially well suited for studying logarithmic conformal field theory (in which correlation functions have logarithmic singularities arising from non-semisimple modules for the chiral algebra) because of the logarithmic tensor category theory of Huang, Lepowsky, and Zhang. In this paper, we study not-necessarily-semisimple or rigid braided tensor categories $\mathcal{C}$ of modules for the fixed-point vertex operator subalgebra $V^G$ of a vertex operator (super)algebra $V$ with finite automorphism group $G$. The main results are that every $V^G$-module in $\mathcal{C}$ with a unital and associative $V$-action is a direct sum of $g$-twisted $V$-modules for possibly several $g\in G$, that the category of all such twisted $V$-modules is a braided $G$-crossed (super)category, and that the $G$-equivariantization of this braided $G$-crossed (super)category is braided tensor equivalent to the original category $\mathcal{C}$ of $V^G$-modules. This generalizes results of Kirillov and M\"{u}ger proved using rigidity and semisimplicity. We also apply the main results to the orbifold rationality problem: whether $V^G$ is strongly rational if $V$ is strongly rational. We show that $V^G$ is indeed strongly rational if $V$ is strongly rational, $G$ is any finite automorphism group, and $V^G$ is $C_2$-cofinite.