BOSONIC SUPERCONFORMAL ALGEBRAS FROM HAMILTONIAN REDUCTION

Hamiltonian reduction of WZW theories involving constraints with half integer conformal weight is analyzed. The reduced system can be described in terms of an effective action that corresponds to a generalized Toda system. To obtain this action, the constraints must be imposed on an enlarged phase space that includes weight 1/2 bosons in addition to the WZW degrees of freedom. An example is worked out for which the chiral algebra consists of a bosonic version of the u(N) extended superconformal algebra. A Gauss decomposition of the WZW field leads to a hybrid free field realization of these algebras.