Notes on gauging noneffective group actions

Abstract

In this paper we study sigma models in which a noneffective group action has been gauged. Such gauged sigma models turn out to be different from gauged sigma models in which an effectively-acting group is gauged, because of nonperturbative effects on the worldsheet. We concentrate on finite noneffectively-acting groups, though we also outline how analogous phenomena also happen in nonfinite noneffectively-acting groups. We find that understanding deformations along twisted sector moduli in these theories leads one to new presentations of CFT's, defined by fields valued in roots of unity.