The parafermionic observable in SLE

Abstract: The parafermionic observable has recently been used by number of authors to study discrete models, believed to be conformally invariant and to prove convergence results for these processes to SLE. We provide a definition for a one parameter family of continuum versions of the paraferminonic observable for SLE, which takes the form of a normalized limit of expressions identical to the discrete definition. We then show the limit defining the observable exists, compute the value of the observable up to a finite multiplicative constant, and prove this constant is non-zero for a wide range of kappa. Finally, we show our observable for SLE becomes a holomorphic function for a particular choice of the parameter, which helps illuminate a fundamental property of the discrete observable.