Wakimoto modules, opers and the center at the critical level

Wakimoto modules are representations of affine Kac-Moody algebras in Fock modules over infinite-dimensional Heisenberg algebras. In this paper, we present the construction of the Wakimoto modules from the point of view of the vertex algebra theory. We then use Wakimoto modules to identify the center of the completed universal enveloping algebra of an affine Kac-Moody algebra at the critical level with the algebra of functions on the space of opers for the Langlands dual group on the punctured disc, giving another proof of the theorem of B. Feigin and the author.