Extensions of the Virasoro group and the Virasoro algebra by modules of tensor densities on \(S^ 1\) (Q1364882)

The authors study a standard question of extensions of a Lie algebra \(L\) by its module \(M\), which amounts to the computation of the second cohomology \(H^2(L,M)\). The situation is somewhat complicated because \(L\) is the Virasoro algebra and it is infinite-dimensional. The module is chosen among the tensor density modules \(F_\lambda\) that are infinite-dimensional too, and the authors also consider the question about the group extension. They calculate the group \(H_c^2 (\text{Diff}^+ (S^1,F_\lambda)\), of the differentiable cohomology and prove that non-trivial cocycles exist only for \(\lambda= 0,1,2,5,7\). The list of the cocycles is given both for the group and Lie algebra cohomologies. The second result is the description of the central extensions of the constructed extended Lie algebras. The Lie algebra cohomology \(H^2 (L,F_\lambda)\) for the Virasoro algebra \(L\) were computed by \textit{T. Tsujishita} [Proc. Japan Acad. Sci., Ser. A 53, No. 4, 134-138 (1977; Zbl 0476.58032)], but the authors claim credit for writing down cocycles.