It seems to be a common knowledge that for the Virasoro generators in CFT the rule of hermitian conjugation reads
L†n=L−n
There is probably more then one way to show this. I ask for a clarification of a particular one.
One first defines the scalar product on a pair of fields A1,A2 as a correlator
⟨A1,A2⟩:=⟨A1(∞)A2(0)⟩:=limz→∞z2Δ1⟨A1(z)A2(0)⟩
The action of the Virasoro generator Ln on fieds is defined via
LnA1(z):=12πi∮zdζ(ζ−z)n+1⟨T(ζ)A1(z)⟩
Using these definitions I can show that L†1=L−1 in the following way. Consider
⟨L1A1(∞)A2(0)⟩=limz→∞z2Δ1−22πi∮zdζ(ζ−z)2⟨T(ζ)A1(z)A2(0)⟩
Integral around point z can be represented as the sum of integrals around 0 and ∞. Using the ordinary regularity condition for the energy momentum tensor T(ζ)∼ζ−4,ζ→∞ one sees that the integral around ∞ vanishes. In the integral around 0 out of three terms in expansion of (ζ−z)2 only the one with z2 survives in the z→∞ limit. Hence
⟨L1A1(∞)A2(0)⟩=limz→∞z2Δ12πi∮0dζ⟨T(ζ)A1(z)A2(0)⟩=⟨A1(∞)L−1A2(0)⟩
However this trick does not work for me already for n=2. The corresponding scalar product can be represented as
⟨L2A1(∞)A2(0)⟩=limz→∞z2Δ1−42πi(∮0+∮∞)dζ(ζ−z)3⟨T(ζ)A1(z)A2(0)⟩
Here the situation is opposite. It seems to me that the integral around
0 vanishes in the
z→∞ limit, since it grows as
z3 and gets diminished by a factor
z−4. On the other hand, the integral around
∞ seems to be non-vanishing as the integrand grows faster that in preceeding case, and the
ζ−4 fall off of
T(ζ) is not enough to make it regular at infinity. But I do not see how to bring this integral to the expected form
⟨A1(∞)L−2A2(0)⟩. Any help is appreciated.