We propose a physical interpretation of the chiral de Rham complex as a formal Hamiltonian quantization of the supersymmetric non-linear sigma model. We show that the chiral de Rham complex on a Calabi-Yau manifold carries all information about the classical dynamics of the sigma model. Physically, this provides an operator realization of the non-linear sigma model. Mathematically, the idea suggests the use of Hamiltonian flow equations within the vertex algebra formalism with the possibility to incorporate both left and right moving sectors within one mathematical framework.1 The name chiral-anti-chiral de Rham complex was suggested in [9].

We study the algebra of local functionals equipped with a Poisson bracket. We discuss the underlying algebraic structures related to a version of the Courant-Dorfman algebra. As a main illustration, we consider the functionals over the cotangent bundle of the superloop space over a smooth manifold. We present a number of examples of the Courant-like brackets arising from this analysis.Comment: 20 pages, the version published in JHE

Interpreting the chiral de Rham complex (CDR) as a formal Hamiltonian quantization of the supersymmetric non-linear sigma model, we suggest a setup for the study of CDR on manifolds with special holonomy. We show how to systematically construct global sections of CDR from differential forms, and investigate the algebra of the sections corresponding to the covariantly constant forms associated with the special holonomy. As a concrete example, we construct two commuting copies of the Odake algebra (an extension of the N = 2 superconformal algebra) on the space of global sections of CDR of a Calabi-Yau threefold and conjecture similar results for G 2 manifolds. We also discuss quasi-classical limits of these algebras.

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We give an introduction to the Mathematica package Lambda, designed for calculating λ-brackets in both vertex algebras, and in SUSY vertex algebras. This is equivalent to calculating operator product expansions in two-dimensional conformal field theory. The syntax of λ-brackets is reviewed, and some simple examples are shown, both in component notation, and in N = 1 superfield notation. *