Schellekens' list and the very strange formula (Q2227269)

Significant interest has poured into the classification of strongly rational, holomorphic vertex operator algebras (VOAs) of central charge \(24\) for many decades. \textit{A. N. Schellekens} [Commun. Math. Phys. 153, No. 1, 159--185 (1993; Zbl 0782.17014)] first classified these structures, while [\textit{J. van Ekeren} et al., J. Reine Angew. Math. 759, 61--99 (2020; Zbl 1447.81181)] later provided a rigorous mathematical proof. Both of these works, however, rested on significant computer computations and a number of equations. This paper provides a different, simpler proof of Schellekens list. That is, it is established that a nonzero weight-one space \(V_1\) of a strongly rational, holomorphic VOA \(V\) of central charge \(24\) must be one of \(70\) nonzero Lie algebras (Theorem 6.3). This is proved without the use of higher-order trace identities, and instead relies only on the equation \[ \frac{h_i^\vee}{k_i} = \frac{\operatorname{dim}(V_1)-24}{24} \] for \(i=1,\dots ,r\), where \(h_i^\vee\) is the dual Coxeter number of the semisimple Lie algebra \(\mathfrak{g}_i\) in the decomposition \(V_1=\mathfrak{g}_1 \oplus \cdots \oplus \mathfrak{g}_r\). En route to this result, the authors establish under certain conditions that \[ \dim (V_1^{\operatorname{orb}(g)})\leq 24 +12n \sum_{i=1}^r h_i^\vee \left\lvert \delta_i -\frac{\rho_i}{h_i^\vee}\right\rvert^2 , \] where \(g\) is an automorphism of \(V\) of order \(n\) such that \(g\) restricted to \(V_1\) is inner and characterized by \(\delta = \sum_{i=1}^r \delta_i\) in the dual Cartan subalgebra, \(\rho_i\) are Weyl vectors, and \(V_1^{\operatorname{orb}(g)}\) denotes the weight-one space of the orbifold VOA \(V^{\operatorname{orb}(g)}\) (Theorem 3.3). Additionally, using the inverse orbifold construction, it is shown that \(V\) is isomorphic to \(V_\Lambda^{\operatorname{orb}(g)}\) for some automorphism \(g\) of \(V_\Lambda\), where \(V_\Lambda\) is the VOA associated to the Leech lattice \(\Lambda\) (Theorem 5.7). Finally, using that every strongly rational, holomorphic VOA of central charge \(24\) with \(V_1\not = \{0\}\) can be obtained by an orbifold construction from \(V_\Lambda\), the authors demonstrate how one could prove the uniqueness of such a VOA for a given semisimple Lie algebra \(V_1\). This is worked out for \(43\) of the \(70\) cases, while the others are omitted due to computational limitations (Theorem 7.1).