Conformal field theory
The Hilbert space of physical states is a unitary module of the Virasoro algebra corresponding to a fixed value of "c". Stability requires that the energy spectrum of the Hamiltonian be nonnegative. The modules of interest are the highest weight modules of the Virasoro algebra.
Hilbert space
The problem can also be studied from the abstract point of view: every Hilbert space has an orthonormal basis, and every element of the Hilbert space can be written in a unique way as a sum of multiples of these basis elements. The coefficients appearing on these basis elements are sometimes known abstractly as the Fourier coefficients of the element of the space. The abstraction is especially useful when it is more natural to use different basis functions for a space such as . In many circumstances, it is desirable not to decompose a function into trigonometric functions, but rather into orthogonal polynomials or wavelets for instance, and in higher dimensions into spherical harmonics.