FROM CHIRAL TO TWO-DIMENSIONAL WESS-ZUMINO-NOVIKOV-WITTEN MODEL VIA QUANTUM GAUGE GROUP

We study the canonical quantization of the SU(n) WZNW model. Decoupling the chiral dynamics requires an extended state space including left and right monodromies as independent variables. In the simplest (n = 2) case we explicitly show that the zero modes of the monodromy extended SU(2) WZNW model give rise to a quantum group gauge theory in a finite-dimensional Fock space. We define the subspace of Uq(sL(2)) Uq(sL(2))-invariant vectors on which the monodromy invariance is also restored and construct the physical space applying a generalized cohomology condition.