EXCLUSION STATISTICS IN CONFORMAL FIELD-THEORY SPECTRA

We propose a new method for investigating the exclusion statistics of quasiparticles in conformal field theory (CFT) spectra. The method lea ds to one-particle distribution functions, which generalize the Fermi- Dirac distribution. For the simplest SU(n) invariant CFTs we find a ge neralization of Gentile parafermions, and we obtain new distributions for the simplest Z(N)-invariant CFTs. In special examples, our approac h reproduces distributions based on ''fractional exclusion statistics' ' in the sense of Haldane. We comment on applications to fractional qu antum Hall effect edge theories.