Toda Conformal Blocks, Quantum Groups, and Flat Connections

This paper investigates the relations between the Toda conformal field theories, quantum group theory and the quantisation of moduli spaces of flat connections. We use the free field representation of the W-algebras to define natural bases for spaces of conformal blocks of the Toda conformal field theory associated to the Lie algebra sl3 on the three-punctured sphere with representations of generic type associated to the three punctures. The operator-valued monodromies of degenerate fields can be used to describe the quantisation of the moduli spaces of flat SL(3)-connections. It is shown that the matrix elements of the monodromies can be expressed as Laurent polynomials of more elementary operators which have a simple definition in the free field representation. These operators are identified as quantised counterparts of natural higher rank analogs of the Fenchel-Nielsen coordinates from Teichmuller theory. Possible applications to the study of the non-Lagrangian SUSY field theories are briefly outlined.