Ghost Systems Revisited: Modified Virasoro Generators and Logarithmic Conformal Field Theories

Abstract

We study the possibility of extending ghost systems with higher spin to a logarithmic conformal field theory. In particular we are interested in c=-26 which turns out to behave very differently to the already known c=-2 case. The energy momentum tensor cannot be built anymore by a combination of derivatives of generalized symplectic fermion fields. Moreover, the logarithmically extended theory is only consistent when considered on nontrivial Riemann surfaces. This results in a LCFT with some unexpected properties. For instance the Virasoro mode L_0 is diagonal and for certain values of the deformation parameters even the whole global conformal group is non-logarithmic.