Quantum Riemann surfaces, 2D gravity and the geometrical origin of minimal models

Abstract

Based on a recent paper by Takhtajan, we propose a formulation of 2D quantum gravity whose basic object is the Liouville action on the Riemann sphere $\Sigma_{0,m+n}$ with both parabolic and elliptic points. The identification of the classical limit of the conformal Ward identity with the Fuchsian projective connection on $\Sigma_{0,m+n}$ implies a relation between conformal weights and ramification indices. This formulation works for arbitrary $d$ and admits a standard representation only for $d\le 1$. Furthermore, it turns out that the integerness of the ramification number constrains $d=1-24/(n^2-1)$ that for $n=2m+1$ coincides with the unitary minimal series of CFT.