Exclusion Statistics in Conformal Field Theory Spectra

Abstract

We propose a new method for investigating the exclusion statistics of quasi-particles in Conformal Field Theory (CFT) spectra. The method leads to one-particle distribution functions, which generalize the Fermi-Dirac distribution. For the simplest $su(n)$ invariant CFTs we find a generalization of Gentile parafermions, and we obtain new distributions for the simplest $Z_N$-invariant CFTs. In special examples, our approach reproduces distributions based on `fractional exclusion statistics' in the sense of Haldane. We comment on applications to fractional quantum Hall effect edge theories.