On modular properties of the AdS3 CFT

Abstract: We study modular properties of the AdS3 WZNW model. Although the Euclidean partition function is modular invariant, the characters on the Euclidean torus are ill-defined and their modular transformations are unknown. We reconsider the characters defined on the Lorentzian torus, focusing on their structure as distributions. We find a generalized S matrix, depending on the sign of the real modular parameters, which has two diagonal blocks and one off-diagonal block, mixing discrete and continuous representations, that we fully determine. We then explore the relations among the modular transformations, the fusion algebra and the boundary states. We explicitly construct Ishibashi states for the maximally symmetric D-branes and show that the generalized S matrix defines the one-point functions associated to point-like and H2 branes as well as the fusion rules of the degenerate representations of SL(2,R) appearing in the open string spectrum of the point-like D-branes, through a generalized Verlinde theorem.