QLunch: From affine sl(2) to Virasoro

Speaker: Jørgen Rasmussen, University of Queensland

Title: From affine sl(2) to Virasoro

Abstract: We give a brief introduction to the affine sl(2) and Virasoro algebras, and point out some similarities between their representation theories. We then discuss a new way of obtaining insight into the structure of Virasoro representations from knowledge of affine sl(2) representations. Only very rudimentary familiarity with Lie algebras and representation theory will be assumed.