A braided monoidal category for free super-bosons

Abstract: The chiral conformal field theory of free super-bosons is generated by weight one currents whose mode algebra is the affinisation of an abelian Lie super-algebra h with non-degenerate super-symmetric pairing. The mode algebras of a single free boson and of a single pair of symplectic fermions arise for even|odd dimension 1|0 and 0|2 of h, respectively. In this paper, the representations of the untwisted mode algebra of free super-bosons are equipped with a tensor product, a braiding, and an associator. In the symplectic fermion case, i.e. if h is purely odd, the braided monoidal structure is extended to representations of the Z/2Z-twisted mode algebra. The tensor product is obtained by computing spaces of vertex operators. The braiding and associator are determined by explicit calculations from three- and four-point conformal blocks.