Bosonic and fermionic realizations of the affine algebra so(2n)

Abstract

We give an explicit description of the Kac-Peterson-Lepowsky construction of the basic representation for the affine Lie algebra so(2n). Using the conjugacy classes of the Weyl group of so(2n), we describe all inequivalent maximal Heisenberg subalgebras (HSA's) of the corresponding affine Lie algebra. We associate to these HSA's multicomponent charged and neutral free fermionic fields. The boson-fermion correspondence for these fields provides us with fermionic vertex operators, whose `normal ordered products' give the (twisted) vertex operators of the Kac-Peterson-Lepowsky construction.