The chiral algebras of class S

In 2013, Beem, Lemos, Liendo, Peelaers, Rastelli and van Rees found a remarkable correspondence between SCFTs in 4d with N ≥ 2 and vertex algebras. The chiral algebras of class S, i.e. the vertex algebras associated to theories of Class S, are of particular interest as they exhibit rich algebraic structures arising from the requirement of generalised S-duality. I will explain a mathematical construction of these vertex algebras, due to Arakawa, that is remarkably uniform and requires no knowledge of the underlying SCFT. Time permitting, I will detail a recent generalisation of this construction to the case of the chiral algebras of class S with outer automorphism twist lines.