Let M(r) be the moduli space of rank r vector bundles with trivial determinant on a Riemann surface X . This space carries a natural line bundle, the determinant line bundle L . We describe a canonical isomorphism of the space of global sections of L^k with a space known in conformal field theory as the ``space of conformal blocks", which is defined in terms of representations of the Lie algebra sl(r, C((z))).Comment: 43 pages, Plain Te

Let X be a smooth, complete and connected curve and G be a simple and simply connected algebraic group over C. We calculate the Picard group of the moduli stack of quasi-parabolic G-bundles and identify the spaces of sections of its members to the conformal blocs of Tsuchiya, Ueno and Yamada. We describe the canonical sheaf on these stacks and show that they admit a unique square root, which we will construct explicitly. Finally we show how the results on the stacks apply to the coarse moduli spaces and recover (and extend) the Drezet-Narasimhan theorem. We show moreover that the coarse moduli spaces of semi-stable SO r -bundles are not locally factorial for r ≥ 7.

In this paper we develop a theory of Grothendieck's six operations of lisse-étale constructible sheaves on Artin stacks locally of finite type over certain excellent schemes of finite Krull dimension. We also give generalizations of the classical base change theorems and Kunneth formula to stacks, and prove new results about cohomological descent for unbounded complexes.