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Unitary representations of the Virasoro and super-Virasoro algebras

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It is shown that a method previously given for constructing representations of the Virasoro algebra out of representations of affine Kac-Moody algebras yields the full discrete series of highest weight irreducible representations of the Virasoro algebra. The corresponding method for the super-Virasoro algebras (i.e. the Neveu-Schwarz and Ramond algebras) is described in detail and shown to yield the full discrete series of irreducible highest weight representations.

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Communicated by A. Jaffe

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Goddard, P., Kent, A. & Olive, D. Unitary representations of the Virasoro and super-Virasoro algebras. Commun.Math. Phys. 103, 105–119 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01464283

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