Classification of irreducible weight modules over higher rank Virasoro algebras

Rencai Lu, Kaiming Zhao

Published 2003-08-14, updated 2005-08-31Version 3

Let $G$ be a rank $n$ additive subgroup of $\bC$ and $\Vir[G]$ the corresponding Virasoro algebra of rank $n$. In the present paper, irreducible weight modules with finite dimensional weight spaces over $\Vir[G]$ are completely determined. There are two different classes of them. One class consists of simple modules of intermediate series whose weight spaces are all 1-dimensional. The other is constructed by using intermediate series modules over a Virasoro subalgebra of rank $n-1$. The classification of such modules over the classical Virasoro algebra was obtained by O. Mathieu in 1992 using a completely different approach.