First cohomologies of affine, Virasoro, and lattice vertex operator algebras

Abstract

In this paper we study the first cohomologies for the following three examples of vertex operator algebras: (i) the simple affine VOA associated to a simple Lie algebra with positive integral level; (ii) the Virasoro VOA corresponding to minimal models; (iii) the lattice VOA associated to a positive definite even lattice. We prove that in all these cases, the first cohomology $H^1(V, W)$ are given by the zero-mode derivations when $W$ is any $V$-module with an $\N$-grading (not necessarily by the operator $L(0)$). This agrees with the conjecture made by Yi-Zhi Huang and the author in 2018. For negative energy representations of Virasoro VOA, the same conclusion holds when $W$ is $L(0)$-graded with lowest weight greater or equal to $-3$. Relationship between the first cohomology of the VOA and that of the associated Zhu's algebra is also discussed.