Indecomposable modules over the Virasoro Lie algebra and a conjecture of V. Kac (Q804686)

The authors study representations of the Virasoro algebra \textit{Vir}, the universal central extension of the Lie algebra of Laurent polynomial vector fields on the circle. V. Kac conjectured that if \(V\) is an irreducible representation of \textit{Vir} such that (a) the generator \(L_0\) of rigid rotations acts semisimply on \(V\), (b) the eigenspaces of \(L_0\) are finite-dimensional, then \(V\) is highest or lowest weight or all its \(L_0\)-eigenspaces have dimension \(\le 1\). This was first proved by \textit{V. Chari} and \textit{A. Pressley} under the further assumption that \(V\) is unitarizable [Compos. Math. 67, 315--342 (1988; Zbl 0661.17022)]. It has recently been proved by O. Mathieu in complete generality using characteristic \(p\) techniques. The authors of this paper consider indecomposable representations of \textit{Vir}, replacing (b) by the stronger assumption \((\text{b}')\) the eigenspaces of \(L_0\) have uniformly bounded dimension. (This excludes nontrivial highest and lowest weight representations.) They prove that indecomposable representations satisfying (a) and \((\text{b}')\) always contain a subrepresentation, the eigenspaces of \(L_0\) of which have dimension \(\le 1\). The methods used are similar to those of the paper referenced above.