English

Structure of Virasoro tensor categories at central charge $13-6p-6p^{-1}$ for integers $p > 1$

Quantum Algebra 2026-01-27 v3 Mathematical Physics Category Theory math.MP Representation Theory

Abstract

Let Oc\mathcal{O}_c be the category of finite-length central-charge-cc modules for the Virasoro Lie algebra whose composition factors are irreducible quotients of reducible Verma modules. Recently, it has been shown that Oc\mathcal{O}_c admits vertex algebraic tensor category structure for any cCc\in\mathbb{C}. Here, we determine the structure of this tensor category when c=136p6p1c=13-6p-6p^{-1} for an integer p>1p>1. For such cc, we prove that Oc\mathcal{O}_{c} is rigid, and we construct projective covers of irreducible modules in a natural tensor subcategory Oc0\mathcal{O}_{c}^0. We then compute all tensor products involving irreducible modules and their projective covers. Using these tensor product formulas, we show that Oc\mathcal{O}_c has a semisimplification which, as an abelian category, is the Deligne product of two tensor subcategories that are tensor equivalent to the Kazhdan-Lusztig categories for affine sl2\mathfrak{sl}_2 at levels 2+p±1-2+p^{\pm 1}. Next, as a straightforward consequence of the braided tensor category structure on Oc\mathcal{O}_c together with the theory of vertex operator algebra extensions, we rederive known results for triplet vertex operator algebras W(p)\mathcal{W}(p), including rigidity, fusion rules, and construction of projective covers. Finally, we prove a recent conjecture of Negron that Oc0\mathcal{O}_c^0 is braided tensor equivalent to the PSL(2,C)PSL(2,\mathbb{C})-equivariantization of the category of W(p)\mathcal{W}(p)-modules.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2011.02170,
  title  = {Structure of Virasoro tensor categories at central charge $13-6p-6p^{-1}$ for integers $p > 1$},
  author = {Robert McRae and Jinwei Yang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2011.02170},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

56 pages, final version incorporating referee's comments