NEW SPIN-2 GAUGED SIGMA-MODELS AND GENERAL CONFORMAL FIELD-THEORY

Recently, we have studied the general Virasoro construction at one loo p in the background of the general nonlinear sigma model. Here, we fin d the action formulation of these new conformal field theories when th e background sigma model is itself conformal. In this case, the new co nformal field theories are described by a large class of new spin-2 ga uged sigma models. As examples of the new actions, we discuss the spin -2 gauged WZW actions, which describe the conformal field theories of the generic affine-Virasoro construction, and the spin-2 gauged g/h co set constructions. We are able to identify the latter as the actions o f the local Lie h-invariant conformal field theories, a large class of generically irrational conformal field theories with a local gauge sy mmetry.