A self-dual integral form of the moonshine module (Q2633049)

The moonshine module \(V^\natural\) is a well-known vertex operator algebra whose automorphism group is the Monster finite simple group and whose graded dimension is (up to a constant term) Klein's modular \(j\)-invariant [\textit{I. Frenkel} et al., Vertex operator algebras and the monster. Boston: Academic Press (1988; Zbl 0674.17001)]. In this paper, the author constructs an integral form of \(V^\natural\) that is both Monster-invariant and self-dual with respect to a natural nondegenerate bilinear form on \(V^\natural\). Although an earlier integral form of \(V^\natural\) was constructed in [\textit{C. Dong} and \textit{R. Griess}, J. Algebra 365, 184--198 (2012; Zbl 1297.17011)], this previous work obtained Monster-invariance by intersecting Monster-translates of a preliminary integral form, thus losing control over self-duality. However, self-duality is critical for applications to the modular moonshine conjectures of Ryba; in this paper, the author uses his self-dual integral form to complete the proof of these conjectures. The difficulty in constructing \(V^\natural\) over \(\mathbb{Z}\) is that the best constructions of \(V^\natural\) are ``cyclic orbifoldings'' involving order-\(p\) automorphisms of the vertex operator algebras of rank-\(24\) even unimodular lattices, and these constructions only work well over \(\mathbb{Z}[1/p,e^{2\pi i/p}]\). For example, the simplest construction, the original one of Frenkel-Lepowsky-Meurman using an order-\(2\) automorphism of the Leech lattice vertex operator algebra, works over \(\mathbb{Z}[1/2]\). To overcome these difficulties, the author uses some recent cyclic orbifolding results from [\textit{T. Abe} et al., Math. Z. 290, No. 1--2, 683--697 (2018; Zbl 1430.17079)]. First, he applies cyclic orbifolding to the Leech lattice vertex operator algebra \(V_\Lambda\) using order-\(pq\) automorphisms \(g\) for suitable primes \(p\) and \(q\). This orbifolding procedure recovers \(V_\Lambda\), but one gets \(V^\natural\) if instead one uses either \(g^p\) or \(g^q\). Because \(V_\Lambda\) has a self-dual integral form, the author can then show that the abelian intertwining algebra given by the direct sum of all irreducible modules for the fixed-point subalgebra \(V_\Lambda^g\) has a self-dual \(\mathbb{Z}[1/pq,e^{\pi i/pq}]\)-form. Then since the \(g^p\)- and \(g^q\)-orbifoldings are \(V^\natural\), this abelian intertwining algebra contains subalgebras that are self-dual \(\mathbb{Z}[1/pq,e^{\pi i/pq}]\)-forms of \(V^\natural\). Finally, the author uses the method of faithfully flat descent from commutative algebra to carefully intersect these \(\mathbb{Z}[1/pq,e^{\pi i/pq}]\) forms of \(V^\natural\), for several different choices of \(p\) and \(q\), to obtain a self-dual \(\mathbb{Z}\)-form. The construction of forms of \(V^\natural\) within the abelian intertwining algebra of \(V_\Lambda^g\)-modules allows the author to use results on the automorphism group of \(V_\Lambda\) and on maximal subgroups of the Monster to show that these \(\mathbb{Z}[1/pq,e^{\pi i/pq}]\)-forms are Monster-invariant. As a result, the final \(\mathbb{Z}\)-form is also Monster invariant.