Realizations of the monster Lie algebra

DOI10.1007/BF01614075MaRDI QIDQ1805385zbMATH OpenWikidataFDO

Authors Elizabeth Jurisich, J. Lepowsky, Robert Wilson

Publication date 19 December 1995

Published in Selecta Mathematica. New Series (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9408037

Cartan subalgebras explicit construction free Lie algebra Kac-Moody Lie algebra monster Lie algebra monster simple group moonshine module simple roots standard modules

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Identities, free Lie (super)algebras (17B01) Representations of Lie algebras and Lie superalgebras, algebraic theory (weights) (17B10) Kac-Moody (super)algebras; extended affine Lie algebras; toroidal Lie algebras (17B67) Virasoro and related algebras (17B68) Simple groups: sporadic groups (20D08)

Abstract: We study aspects of the theory of generalized Kac-Moody Lie algebras (or Borcherds algebras) and their standard modules. It is shown how such an algebra with no mutually orthogonal imaginary simple roots, including Borcherds' Monster Lie algebra

f r a k m

, can be naturally constructed from a certain Kac-Moody subalgebra and a module for it. We observe that certain generalized Verma (induced) modules for generalized Kac-Moody algebras are standard modules and hence irreducible. In particular, starting from the moonshine module for the Monster group

M

, we construct a certain

{f r a k g l}_{2}

- and

M

-module, the tensor algebra over which carries a natural structure of irreducible module for

f r a k m

, which is realized as an explicitly prescribed

M

-covariant Lie algebra of operators on this tensor algebra. The existence of large free subalgebras of

f r a k m

is further exploited to provide a simplification of Borcherds' proof of the Conway-Norton conjectures for the McKay-Thompson series of the moonshine module. The coefficients of these series are shown to satisfy natural recursion relations (replication formulas) equivalent to, but different from, those obtained by Borcherds.

Review text

The authors provide an explicit construction of the monster Lie algebra \({\mathfrak m}\) introduced by \textit{R. Borcherds} [Invent. Math. 109, 405-444 (1992; Zbl 0799.17014)] as an algebra of operators on a tensor algebra associated with the monster simple group. Their approach is to apply a result of the first author [J. Pure Appl. Algebra (to appear))] that certain generalized Kac-Moody algebras contain specific large free subalgebras. This permits them to simplify Borcherds' work (loc. cit.) establishing the Conway-Norton conjectures for the moonshine module \(V^\#\) for the monster group \(M\) [\textit{J.H. Conway} and \textit{S. P. Norton}, Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 11, 308--339 (1979; Zbl 0424.20010)]. A key step in the simplification is use of the decomposition \({\mathfrak m}= {\mathfrak u}^+ +{\mathfrak {gl}}_2+ {\mathfrak u}^-\), where the Lie algebras \({\mathfrak u}^+\) and \({\mathfrak u}^-\) are free algebras from the first author's above- cited paper. An additional useful step is their use of the \({\mathfrak {gl}}_2\)-module \({\mathfrak u}^-\) in place of \({\mathfrak n}^-\). Their work with generalized Kac-Moody algebras follows the approach of \textit{H. Garland} and the second author [e.g., Invent. Math. 34, 37--76 (1976; Zbl 0358.17015)] based on extended (by adjoining certain degree derivations) Lie algebras, whose enlarged Cartan subalgebras determine linearly independent roots of multiplicity one. Per the first author's earlier paper, any generalized Kac-Moody algebra \({\mathfrak g}\) without mutually orthogonal imaginary simple roots decomposes as \({\mathfrak g}= {\mathfrak u}^++ ({\mathfrak g}_S+ {\mathfrak h})+ {\mathfrak u}^-\) for \({\mathfrak g}_S\) a semisimple or Kac-Moody Lie algebra and \( {\mathfrak u}^+\) and \({\mathfrak u}^-\) free Lie algebras over particular modules for \({\mathfrak g}_S\). Further, there are Lie algebras that cover \({\mathfrak m}\) and to which the natural action of \(M\) on \({\mathfrak m}\) lifts. Another important fact is that the maximal Lie algebra \({\mathfrak a}_{\max}\) corresponding to a local Lie algebra \({\mathfrak a}= {\mathfrak a}_{-1}+ {\mathfrak a}_0+ {\mathfrak a}_1\) is such that \({\mathfrak a}^\pm_{\max}\) is the free Lie algebra on \({\mathfrak a}_{\pm 1}\) [as in \textit{V. Kac}, Math. USSR, Izv. 2, 1271--1311 (1970); translation from Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. Mat. 32, 1323--1367 (1968; Zbl 0222.17007)]. Some induced standard modules from irreducible modules of the subalgebra \(({\mathfrak g}_S+ {\mathfrak h})+ {\mathfrak u}^+\) complete the foundation for a realization of \({\mathfrak m}\) as an explicit \(M\)-covariant Lie algebra of operators on the tensor space on \({\mathcal V}\), which is one of the two infinite-dimensional \({\mathfrak {gl}}_2\)- and \(M\)-modules \({\mathfrak a}_{\pm 1}\) that arise in the local Lie algebra construction with \({\mathfrak a}_0= {\mathfrak {gl}}_{2^-}\).

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