Notes on gauging noneffective group actions

Abstract

In this paper we study sigma models in which a noneffective group action has been gauged. Such gauged sigma models turn out to be different from gauged sigma models in which an effectively-acting group is gauged, because of nonperturbative effects on the worldsheet. We concentrate on finite noneffectively-acting groups, though we also outline how analogous phenomena also happen in nonfinite noneffectively-acting groups. We find that understanding deformations along twisted sector moduli in these theories leads one to new presentations of CFT's, defined by fields valued in roots of unity.

37 pages, LaTeX, 3 figures; v2: typos fixed