Duality and defects in rational conformal field theory

Abstract

We study topological defect lines in two-dimensional rational conformal field theory. Continuous variation of the location of such a defect does not change the value of a correlator. Defects separating different phases of local CFTs with the same chiral symmetry are included in our discussion. We show how the resulting one-dimensional phase boundaries can be used to extract symmetries and order-disorder dualities of the CFT. The case of central charge c=4/5, for which there are two inequivalent world sheet phases corresponding to the tetra-critical Ising model and the critical three-states Potts model, is treated as an illustrative example.