A new class of irreducible modules over the affine-Virasoro algebra of type \(A_1\) (Q2161160)

It is well known that the Virasoro algebra acts on highest-weight modules for affine Kac-Moody Lie algebras of level \(1\) (for example) through the Sugawara construction. The affine-Virasoro algebra is the Lie algebra spanned by both the affine and Virasoro operators acting on such highest-weight modules. In the paper under review, the affine-Virasoro algebra associated to \(\mathfrak{sl}_2\) is considered. This Lie algebra has a central basis element \(C\), basis elements \(e_i\), \(f_i\), \(h_i\), \(i\in\mathbb{Z}\), whose commutation relations are those of the affine Lie algebra \(\widehat{\mathfrak{sl}}_2\), and basis elements \(d_i\), \(i\in\mathbb{Z}\), whose commutation relations are those of the Virasoro algebra. The remaining commutation relations are \[ [d_i, a_j]=j a_{i+j} \] for \(a\in\lbrace e,f,h\rbrace\) and \(i,j\in\mathbb{Z}\). In [\textit{Q. Chen} and \textit{J. Han}, J. Math. Phys. 60, No. 7, Article ID 071707, 9 p. (2019; Zbl 1416.81077)], four families of irreducible non-weight modules for the affine-Virasoro algebra of \(\mathfrak{sl}_2\) were constructed. The Cartan subalgebra acts non-semisimply on these modules: they are free of rank \(1\) as \(\mathbb{C}[h_0,d_0]\)-modules. In the paper under review, the authors consider tensor products of finitely many of these irreducible non-weight modules with one irreducible highest-weight module. They find simple necessary and sufficient conditions for such tensor products to remain irreducible as modules for the affine-Virasoro algebra, and they show that two such tensor product modules are isomorphic to each other if and only if their tensor factors are pairwise isomorphic (possibly after rearrangement). They also show that these tensor product modules are not isomorphic to previously-constructed irreducible non-weight modules for the affine-Virasoro algebra of \(\mathfrak{sl}_2\), such as Whittaker modules and \(\mathbb{C}[h_0,d_0]\)-free modules of rank \(1\).