Conformal blocks, fusion rules and the Verlinde formula

Abstract

The Verlinde formula computes the dimension of certain vector spaces ("conformal blocks") associated to a Rational Conformal Field Theory. In this paper we show how this can be made rigorous for one particular such theory, the WZW model. Thanks to the results of [B-L], [F] and [T-U-Y], this gives the dimension of the space of global sections of the determinant line bundles (and its multiples) on the moduli space of vector bundles with fixed rank and determinant.