W-algebras and the equivalence of bihamiltonian, Drinfeld–Sokolov and Dirac reductions

Abstract

We prove that the classical W-algebra associated to a nilpotent orbit in a simple Lie-algebra can be constructed by preforming bihamiltonian, Drinfeld–Sokolov or Dirac reductions. We conclude that the classical W-algebra depends only on the nilpotent orbit but not on the choice of a good grading or an isotropic subspace. In addition, using this result we prove again that the transverse Poisson structure to a nilpotent orbit is polynomial and we better clarify the relation between classical and finite W-algebras.