Superconformal current algebras and their unitary representations

A natural supersymmetric extension is defined of the current (= affine Kac-Moody Lie) algebra ; it corresponds to a superconformal and chiral invariant 2-dimensional quantum field theory (QFT), and hence appears as an ingredient in superstring models. All unitary irreducible positive energy representations of are constructed. They extend to unitary representations of the semidirect sumS (G) of with the superconformal algebra of Neveu-Schwarz, for , or of Ramond, for =0.On leave of absence from the Institute for Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, BG-1184 Sofia, Bulgaria