Duality in osp(1|2) Conformal Field Theory and link invariants

Abstract

We study the crossing symmetry of the conformal blocks of the conformal field theory based on the affine Lie superalgebra osp(1|2). Within the framework of a free field realization of the osp(1|2) current algebra, the fusion and braiding matrices of the model are determined. These results are related in a simple way to those corresponding to the su(2) algebra by means of a suitable identification of parameters. In order to obtain the link invariants corresponding to the osp(1|2) conformal field theory, we analyze the corresponding topological Chern-Simons theory. In a first approach we quantize the Chern-Simons theory on the torus and, as a result, we get the action of the Wilson line operators on the supercharacters of the affine osp(1|2). From this result we get a simple expression relating the osp(1|2) polynomials for torus knots and links to those corresponding to the su(2) algebra. Further, this relation is verified for arbitrary knots and links by quantizing the Chern-Simons theory on the punctured two-sphere.