Vertex Operator Algebras and the Monster

"This book is a detailed research monograph which contains the complete proofs of the authors' previously announced results. It is mostly self-contained and the exposition, given the technicalities involved, could not have been any better. It will be an asset to research mathematicians as well as physicists, and certainly deserves a place in every mathematics and physics library." --MATHEMATICAL REVIEWS

"The present book shows how this group arises as the symmetry group of a certain vertex-operator algebra....'One fact, however, is undeniable. As the automorphism group of a distinguished conformal field theory, the Monster is fundamentally related to one of the most spectacular chapters of modern theoretical physics--string theroy." --N.J.A. SLoane, AT&T Laboratories quoted in AMERICAN SCIENTIST