A unified construction of vertex algebras from infinite-dimensional Lie algebras

Abstract

In this paper, we give a unified construction of vertex algebras arising from infinite-dimensional Lie algebras, including the affine Kac-Moody algebras, Virasoro algebras, Heisenberg algebras and their higher rank analogs, orbifolds and deformations. We define a notion of what we call quasi vertex Lie algebra to unify these Lie algebras. Starting from any (maximal) quasi vertex Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$, we construct a corresponding vertex Lie algebra ${\mathfrak{g}}_0$, and establish a canonical isomorphism between the category of restricted $\mathfrak{g}$-modules and that of equivariant $\phi$-coordinated quasi $V_{{\mathfrak{g}}_0}$-modules, where $V_{{\mathfrak{g}}_0}$ is the universal enveloping vertex algebra of ${\mathfrak{g}}_0$. This unified all the previous constructions of vertex algebras from infinite-dimensional Lie algebras and shed light on the way to associate vertex algebras with Lie algebras.