Canonical Quantization of Interacting WZW Theories

Abstract

Using canonical quantization we find the Virasoro centre for a class of conformally-invariant interacting Wess-Zumino-Witten theories. The theories have a group structure similar to that of Toda theories (both abelian and non-abelian) but the usual Toda constraints on the coupling constants are relaxed and the theories are not necessarily integrable. The general formula for the Virasoro centre is compared to that derived by BRST methods in the Toda case, and helps to explain the structure of the latter.