E Virasoro Frames and their Stabilizers for the 8 1 0 Lattice type Vertex Operator Algebra 0 2 n Robert L. Griess, Jr.∗ and Gerald H¨ohn† a J 7 3 January, 2001 ] A Q Abstract . The concept of a framed vertex operator algebra (FVOA) is new (cf. [DGH]). h This article contributes to this theory with a full analysis of all Virasoro frame t a stabilizersinV,theimportantexampleoftheE level1affineKac-MoodyVOA, m 8 whichisisomorphictothelatticeVOAfortherootlatticeofE (C). Weanalyze 8 [ the frame stabilizers, both as abstract groups and as subgroups of Aut(V) = ∼ 1 E8(C). Each frame stabilizer is a finite group, contained in the normalizer of a v 2B-pure elementary abelian 2-group in Aut(V), but is not usually a maximal 4 finitesubgroupofthisnormalizer. Inparticular,weprovethatthereareexactly 5 five orbits for the action of Aut(V) on the set of Virasoro frames, thus settling 0 an open question about V in Section 5 of [DGH]. The results about the group 1 0 structure of the frame stabilizers can be stated purely in terms of modular 1 braided tensor categories,so this article contributes also to this theory. 0 There are two main viewpoints in our analysis. The first is the theory of / h codes, lattices, markings and the resulting groups of automorphisms. The sec- t a ondisthetheoryoffinitesubgroupsofLiegroups. Weexpectourmethodstobe m applicabletothestudyofotherFVOAsandtheirframestabilizers. Appendices : present aspects of the theory of automorphism groups of VOAs. In particu- v lar, there is a generalresult of independent interest, on embedding lattices into i X unimodular lattices so as to respect automorphism groups and definiteness. r a ∗Department of Mathematics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1109 USA. E-mail: rlgmath.lsa.umich.edu. †Mathematisches Institut, Universita¨t Freiburg, Eckerstraße 1, 79104 Germany. E-mail: [email protected]. ThefirstauthoracknowledgesfinancialsupportfromtheUniversityofMichiganDepartment ofMathematics andNSAgrantUSDOD-MDA904-00-1-0011. 1991Mathematics SubjectClassification. Primary17B69. Secondary22E40,20B25 1 Contents Abstract 1 Notation and terminology 3 1 Introduction 4 2 Stabilizers for framed lattice VOAs 7 2.1 General integral even lattices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2.2 Lattices from marked binary codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 3 General results about Virasoro frames in V 15 E8 4 The five classes of frames in V 21 E8 4.1 The case k =1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 4.2 The case k =2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 4.3 The case k =3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 4.4 The case k =4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 4.5 The case k =5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 5 Appendix 30 5.1 Equivariant unimodularizations of even lattices . . . . . . . . . . 30 5.2 Lifting Aut(L) to the automorphism group of V . . . . . . . . . 33 L 5.3 Nonsplit Extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 5.4 Orbits of parabolic subgroups of orthogonalgroups . . . . . . . . 38 2 Notation and terminology Aut(V) The automorphism group of the VOA V. = (F) The binary code determined by the T -module structure of V0. r C C = (F) The binary code of the I 1,...,r with VI =0. D D ⊆{ } 6 ∆=L/M A Z -code associated to a lattice L with fixed frame sublattice M. ∼ 4 D The normal subgroup of W which stabilizes each subset x of X. X X {± } E The root lattice of E (C). 8 8 E (C) The Lie group of type E over the field of complex numbers. 8 8 η(h)=exp(2πih ) For h V , η(h) is an automorphism of the VOA V. 0 1 ∈ F = ω ,...,ω A Virasoro frame. 1 r { } FVOA Abbreviation for framed vertex operator algebra. G=G(F) The subgroup of Aut(V) fixing the VF F of V. G =G (F) The normal subgroup of G(F) acting trivially on T . r GC =GC (F) The normal subgroup of G(F) acting trivially on V0. D D H , H , The Hamming codes of length 8 resp. 16. 8 16 h A Cartan subalgebra in V L k The dimension of . D L, L An integral lattice of rank n, often self-dual and even, and its dual. ∗ L The even lattice constructed from a doubly-even code C. C M A frame sublattice of L. This is a sublattice isomorphic to Dn 1 M(h ,...,h ) The irreducible T -module of highest weight (h ,...,h ) 0,1, 1 r. 1 r r 1 r ∈{ 2 16} N The normalizer of T in Aut(V ). L r The number of elements in a VF. t The Miyamoto map F G (F). −→ D T A toral subgroup of Aut(V ) for integral even lattice L L with a frame sublattice M. T =M(0) r The tensor product of r simple Virasoro VOAs of rank 1. r ⊗ 2 V An arbitrary VOA, or the VOA V . E8 V The VOA constructed from an even lattice L. L VF Abbreviation for Virasoro frame. VOA Abbreviation for vertex operator algebra. V The canonical irreducible module for the Heisenberg algebra h based on the finite dimensional vector space h. VI The sum of irreducible T -submodules of V isomorphic to r M(h ,...,h ) with h = 1 if and only if i I. 1 r i 16 ∈ V0 =V This is VI, for I = . ∅ ∅ W The stabilizer of a lattice frame X of a lattice L in Aut(L). X Y(.,z) A vertex operator. x( n) Abbreviation for the element t n x in V . − L − ⊗ X A lattice frame of L. These are the vectors of norm 4 in a frame sublattice. 3 1 Introduction In this article, we determine, up to automorphisms, the Virasoro frames and their stabilizers for V , the lattice type vertex operator algebra based on the E8 E -lattice. 8 In[DGH],thebasictheoryofframedvertexoperatoralgebras(FVOAs)was established. It included some general structure theory of frame stabilizers, the subgroupoftheautomorphismgroupfixingtheframesetwise. Itisafinitegroup with a normal 2-subgroup of class at most 2 and quotient group which embeds in the common automorphism group of a pair of binary codes. There was no procedure for computing the exact structure. To develop our understanding of FVOA theory, we decided to settle the frame stabilizers definitively for the familiar example V . This result, with further general theory for analyzing E8 framestabilizersinlatticetypeFVOAs,ispresentedinthisarticle. Evensimple questions such as whether the C-group(defined below) canbe nonabelianor of exponentgreaterthan2 did notseemanswerablewith the techniques in [DGH] (the C-groups for V turn out to be nonabelian for four of the five orbits and E8 elementary abelian for the last orbit). Furthermore, in V , we also show that E8 there are just five orbits on frames, a point which was left unsettled in [DGH]. The study of FVOAs is a special case of the general extension problem of nice rationalVOAs. The problemcanbe formulatedcompletely in terms ofthe associatedmodular braided tensor categoryor 3d-TQFT (cf. [H] and the intro- duction of [DGH]). There has been recent progress in this direction [B, M99], proving also conjectures from [FSS], but a general theory for such extensions is unknown, even for FVOAs. The analysis of Virasoro frame stabilizers con- tributes to this problem by computing the automorphisms of such extensions. Furthermore, our classification result for the five VFs in V can be used to E8 show the uniqueness of the unitary self-dual VOA of central charge 24 with Kac-Moody subVOA VA⊗11,26 (cf. [DGH], Remark 5.4) since up to roots of unity the associated modular braided tensor category is equivalent to the one for the Virasoro subVOA L (0) 16 (cf. [MS]). This seems to be the first uniqueness 1/2 ⊗ result for one of the 71 unitary self-dual VOA candidates of central charge 24 given by Schellekens [Sc] which is not the lattice VOA of a Niemeier lattice. Before stating our main results, we review some material about Virasoro frames from [DGH]. A subset F = ω ,...,ω of a simple vertex operator algebra (VOA) V 1 r { } is called a Virasoro frame (VF) if the ω for i = 1, ..., r generate mutually i commuting simple Virasoro vertex operator algebras of central charge 1/2 and ω + +ω is the Virasoro element of V. Such a VOA V is called a framed 1 r ··· vertex operator algebra (FVOA). We use the notation of [DGH] throughout. In particular, we shall use G for thestabilizeroftheVirasoroframeF inthegroupAut(V). Therearetwobinary codes, , and we use k for the integer dim( ). There will be some obvious C D D 4 modifications of the [DGH] notation, such as (F) to indicate dependence of D the code on the Virasoro frame F, G(F), G (F), G (F), etc. We call the D D C group G the D-group of the frame and we call G the C-group of the frame D C (see [DGH], Def. 2.7). Denote for an abelian group A with A = Hom(A,C ) the dual group. × b Throughout this paper, we use standard group theoretic notation [Go, H]. For instance, if J is a group and S a subset, C(S) or C (S) denotes the centralizer J of S in J, N(S) or N (S) denotes the normalizer of S in J and Z(J) denotes J the center of J. We summarize the basic properties of G. Proposition 1.1 (i) G G and G and G /G are elementary abelian D ≤ C D C D 2-groups; (ii) G Z(G ); D ≤ C (iii) G = and G /G embeds in ; D ∼Db C D Cb (iv) G is finite, and the action of G on the frame embeds G/G in Sym . r C Proof. [DGH], Th. 2.8. The assertion G Z(G ) is easy to check from the D ≤ C definitions, but unfortunately was not made explicit in [DGH]. We have that G /G embeds in , but general theory has not yet given a C D Cb definitive description of the image. We summarize our main results below. See Section 2 for certain definitions. Note that Main Theorem I (ii) just refers to the text for methods. Main Theorem I (i) In the case of a lattice type VOA based on a lattice L and a VF which is associatedtoa latticeframe, X,wehaveadescriptionofG N,whereN ∩ is the normalizer of a natural torus T (see Th. 2.8). It is an extension of the form (G T).W , where W is the automorphism groupof the lattice X ∩ andW isthestabilizerinW ofX. LetD bethesubgroupofW which X X X stabilizes each set x , for x X. Let n=rank(L) and suppose that L {± } ∈ is obtained from the sublattice spanned byX by adjoining “glue vectors” forming the Z -code ∆ = 2ℓ 4k. We have G N, G T = 2ℓ 4k, GC/(GC∩T)∼=4 DX and∼G∩×T ∼=2n−ℓ−k×4ℓ×C ≤8k. C ∩ ∼ × (ii) Assume that in the situation (i) the lattice comes from a marking of a binary code. Then a triality automorphism σ is defined (cf. [DGH], after Theorem 4.10) and one has G G N, σ > G N. In particular the ≥ h ∩ i ∩ group of permutations induced on the VF by G N, σ strictly contains h ∩ i the group induced by G N. We give conditions for identifying these ∩ permutation groups. In the case of V , the cases dim( ) = 1, 2 and 3 E8 D come from a marking and we prove that G N, σ =G. h ∩ i 5 Main Theorem II Let V be the lattice VOA based on the E -lattice. 8 (i) There are exactly five orbits for the action of Aut(V)=E (C) on the set ∼ 8 of VFs in V. (ii) These five orbits are distinguished by the parameter k, the dimension of the code , and in these respective cases G=G(F), the stabilizer of the D Virasoro frame F, has the following structure: k G 1 21+14Sym 16 2 22+12[Sym 2] 8≀ 3 [23+9 =24+8]28[Sym Sym ]= ∼ 3≀ 4 ∼ [23+9 =24+8][Sym Sym ]= ∼ 4≀ 4 ∼ 24+16[Sym Sym ] 3≀ 4 4 24+5[2 AGL(3,2)]=[24 84]2.AGL(3,2) ≀ ∼ × 5 25AGL(4,2)=44[2GL(4,2)] ∼ · (iii) Inthesefivecases,theframestabilizersGaredetermineduptoconjugacy as subgroups of E (C) by group theoretic conditions. Sets of conditions 8 which determine them are found in Section 4 and listed below for each k. k =1: G is the normalizer of the unique up to conjugacy subgroup iso- morphicto21+14;equivalently,theunique uptoconjugacysubgroup + isomorphic to 21+14Sym . + 16 k =2: G satisfies the hypotheses of this conjugacy result: In E (C), there is one conjugacy class of subgroups which are a 8 semidirect product X t , where t has order 2, X = X X is a 1 2 h i central product of groups of the form [2 21+6]Sym such that × 8 X X = Z(X ) = Z(X ) and conjugation by t interchanges X 1 2 1 2 1 ∩ and X . 2 k =3: G is a subgroup of E (C) characterizedup to conjugacy as a sub- 8 group X satisfying the following conditions: (a) X has the form [23+9 =24+8]Sym4.Sym =[24+16]Sym Sym ; 4 4 ∼ 3≀ 4 (b) X has a normal subgroup E =23 which is 2B-pure. ∼ k =4: G has the form [24 84]2.AGL(3,2) = 24+5+8AGL(3,2) and is × ∼ characterized up to conjugacy by this property: it is contained in a subgroup G of the form [24 84][2GL(4,2)], which is uniquely de- 1 × · termined in E (C) up to conjugacy in the normalizer of a GL(4,2)- 8 signalizer (defined in Section 4.4); in particular, G is determined uniquely up to conjugacy in G as the stabilizer of a subgroup iso- 1 morphic to 23 in the GL(4,2)-signalizer. k =5: GisconjugatetoasubgroupoftheAlekseevskigroup(see[A,G76] and Prop. 3.5) of the form 25AGL(4,2)=44[2GL(4,2)] and the set ∼ · ofallsuchsubgroupsoftheAlekseevskigroupformaconjugacyclass in the Alekseevski group. 6 Remark 1.2 We stress that there are two main viewpoints to the analysis in this article. One is group structures coming from binary codes and lattices via markingsandframesasin[DGH];andtheotheristhetheoryoffinitesubgroups of E (C) (for a recent survey, see [GR99]). 8 Appendix 5.1 contains a proof that, given an even lattice L of signature (p,q), there is an integer m 8 so that L embeds as a direct summand of a ≤ unimodular evenlattice M of signature (mp,mq) and so that Aut(M) contains asubgroupwhichstabilizesLandactsfaithfullyonLasAut(L). Thisissimilar in spirit to results of James and Nikulin [J, N] (which display such embeddings into indefinite lattices) and gives a useful containment of VOAs V V . L M ≤ Appendix 5.2isaconstructionofagroupextensionW oftheautomorphism groupW of a lattice L by an elementary abelian 2-groufp. This extension plays a natural role in the automorphismgroupof V . While this constructionis not L new, it it useful to make things explicit for certain proofs in this article. Also, there are some historical remarks. Appendix 5.3 discusses the group extension aspect of the frame stabilizers. At first, it looks like the groups G/G might split over G /G , but some do D C D not. Appendix 5.4 is a technical result about permutation representations for a classical group. 2 Stabilizers for framed lattice VOAs In [DGH], we used the following concept. Definition 2.1 A lattice frame in a rank n lattice L Rn is a set, X, of ≤ 2n lattice vectors of squared length 4 in L such that two elements are equal, opposite or orthogonal. Every lattice frame spans a lattice M =Dn, called the ∼ 1 frame sublattice. Clearly, in a given lattice, there is a bijection between lattice frames and frame sublattices (the frame defining the frame sublattice is the set of minimal vectors in that sublattice). Note that in [DGH] the term lattice frame means sublattice. In Chapter 3 of [DGH], we constructed, for every integrallattice containing a frame sublattice, a Virasoro frame for the associated rank n lattice VOA and determined the decomposition into modules for the Virasoro subVOA T 2n belongingtothisVirasoroframe. InSection2.1,wewilldeterminethesubgroup of the Virasoro frame stabilizer which is visible from this construction. As in [DGH], we will use the language of Z -codes. We also prove a result about 4 thecentralizerofG forsomeframedlattices. InSection2.2,welookatlattices C 7 with frame sublattices constructed from marked binary codes as in Chapter 4 of [DGH]. Here, a triality automorphism is defined; see Theorem 2.19. 2.1 General integral even lattices LetV bethelatticeVOA,basedontheintegralevenlatticeL. Foreveryframe L sublatticeM ofLthereistheassociated VF F = ω ,...,ω insideV V 1 2n M L { } ⊂ (cf. [DGH], Def. 3.2). If X is the lattice frame contained in M, the associated VF F is the set of all 1 x( 1)2 1(ex +e x), x X. We use x( n) for the 16 − ± 4 − ∈ − element t n x in V . − L ⊗ Using the notation of [DGH], we can describe some structure of the Cartan subalgebra h=t−1 C(L ZC) VL associated to a frame sublattice of L: ⊗ ⊗ ⊂ Proposition 2.2 (Cartan subalgebra) Let M be a frame sublattice spanned by a lattice frame inside an integral even lattice L of rank n and let T be the 2n subVOA of V V generated by the associated Virasoro frame of the lattice M L ≤ VOA V . Then L (i) h=(V ) is an abelian Lie algebra of rank n. M 1 (ii) It is the n-dimensional highest weight space for the T -submodule of V 2n L isomorphic to the direct sum 1 1 1 1 1 1 M( , ,0,...,0) M(0,0, , ,0,...,0) M(0,...,0, , ). 2 2 ⊕ 2 2 ⊕···⊕ 2 2 The summands are spanned by vectors of the form x( 1), where x is in − the lattice frame. Proof. For the first statement, recall that as a graded vector space V = M V C[M]. Since the minimal nonzero squared length of a vector x in the h ⊗ latticeM =Dn is4,i.e.ex C[M]hasconformalweight2,theweightonepart ∼ 1 ∈ of V is just the the weight one part of the Heisenberg VOA V , i.e., in the M h usual notation, h = t−1 C(M ZC). It inherits a toral Lie algebra structure ⊗ ⊗ from the Lie algebra V . 1 ForthesecondstatementuseCorollary3.3.(1)of[DGH]. SinceM(h ,...,h ) 1 2n has minimal conformal weight h + + h (this is the smallest i so that 1 2n ··· M(h ,...,h )hasanL(0)-eigenvectorfortheeigenvaluei)andtheweightone 1 2n part of M(0,...,0) is zero, the assertion follows. Throughout this article, when we work with a VOA based on a lattice with lattice frame, we write h for the above Cartan subalgebra (V ) of (V ) . M 1 L 1 Corollary 2.3 In the situation where the VF comes from a lattice frame, G normalizes the Cartan subalgebra h of (V ) . C L 1 8 Proof. We use the proofofProp.2.2andits notation. Forevery(h ,...,h ), 1 2n thegroupG leavesthesubmoduleassociatedtoM(h ,...,h )intheVirasoro 1 2n module decoCmposition invariant, so it normalizes the Lie algebra h (V ) . L 1 ≤ Definition 2.4 Elements of (V ) act as locally finite derivations under the L 1 0th binary composition on V . Such endomorphisms may be exponentiated to L elements of Aut(V ). For h h, we define η(h) := exp(2πih ), so that η is a L 0 ∈ homomorphism from h to Aut(V ). Let T := η(h) be the associated torus of L automorphisms. The scale factor 2πi gives us the exact sequence η 0 L∗ h T 1. −→ −→ −→ −→ Let N :=N(T) be the normalizer of the torus T in Aut(V ) and denote by W L theliftofW :=Aut(L)toasubgroupofAut(V ),asdescribedinAppendix5.f2. L Finally, we need the subgroup K := exp(2πix ) x (V ) . 0 L 1 h | ∈ i Proposition 2.5 For any lattice VOA we have (i) N =TW and N/T =W; ∼ f (ii) Aut(V )=KN and K is a normal subgroup. L Proof. Part (i) follows from [DN] and the construction of W given in Ap- pendix 5.2; part (ii) is due to [DN]. f Definition 2.6 For a subset X of L, let W be its setwise stabilizer. We can X identify X as a subset X of V via the embedding L h. Let W indicate the L X setwise stabilizer of X in W. ⊂ f f WhenX isalatticeframe,D denotesthesubgroupofW whichstabilizes X X each subset x of X (so D acts “diagonally” with respect to the double X {± } basis X). Always, 1 D . Let D be the preimage in W. X X − ∈ e f Given a lattice frame X L we will describe the intersection G N of the ⊂ ∩ frame group G for the associated VF F with N. By using Prop. 2.2 we will show how to get G in the course of studying G T and G N. C ∩ ∩ Definition 2.7 (The code ∆ and integers k, ℓ) Recall n = rank(L). Let X be the lattice frame and M the associated sublattice. We observe that M L L M = 1M and M determines a Z -code ∆ Zn which cor- ≤ ≤ ∗ ≤ ∗ 4 4 ≤ 4 responds to L/M M /M by the identification M /M = Zn extending some ≤ ∗ ∗ ∼ 4 1 -equivariantbijection of 1X with the set of vectors (0,...,0, 1,0,...,0) {± } 4 ± (cf. [DGH], p. 462). There are integers ℓ and k such that the code ∆ is, as an abelian group, isomorphic to 2ℓ 4k. × 9 By Th. 4.7 of [DGH], one has k = dim( ). We have ℓ+2k n since L is D ≤ integral and ℓ+2k =n if and only if L is self-dual. Note that since L contains a frame sublattice, its determinant mustbe anevenpowerof 2. Interms of the Z -code ∆ we get for its automorphism group 4 Aut(∆)=W Mon(n,Z )=2n:Sym ∼ X ≤ 4 ∼ n and D is a normal subgroup of sign changes in W . X X Theorem 2.8 (The intersection G N) For the frame stabilizer G and the ∩ normal subgroups G and G we have: C D (i) G T, G =η(1M +L )=(1M +L )/L =2k; D ≤ D 2 ∗ ∼ 2 ∗ ∗ ∼ (ii) G N, G T =∆=2ℓ 4k, G /(G T)=D ; C ≤ C ∩ ∼ ∼ × C C ∩ ∼ X (iii) G T =2n ℓ k 4ℓ 8k,G N =(G T)W ,(G N)/G =2 (W /D ), ∩ ∼ − − × × ∩ ∩ fX ∩ C ∼ ≀ X X where the wreath product is taken with respect to the action of W /D X X on the n-set of pairs x , x X. {± } ∈ Proof. First, we describe G T. The group T acts on the VF, consisting ∩ of elements of the form 1 x( 1)2 1(ex + e x), x X. A transformation 16 − ± 4 − ∈ η(h) η(h) = T will fix x( 1)2 and send ex +e x to aex + a 1e x, with − − − ∈ − a=e2πi(h,x). Using [DGH], Th. 4.7, we see that η(h) T is in G if (h,L 1M) Z, i.e., ifh 2M +L = 1M+L . Since η(1M∈+L )=(1DM+L )/∩L2=2k≤has ∈ ∗ ∗ 2 ∗ 2 ∗ ∼ 2 ∗ ∗ ∼ the same order as =G , part (i) is proven. Db ∼ D For an element η(h) of T to centralize the frame, the requirement is all of the a above equal 1, which is equivalent to (h,M) Z. This defines the set ≤ M = 1M, and its image is η(M )=(M +L )/L =M /L = L/M = ∆= ∗ 4 ∗ ∼ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∗ ∼ ∼ ∼ 2ℓ 4k. × For η(h) T to stabilize the frame, the requirement is that all a 1 , ∈ ∈ {± } which is equivalent to (h,M) 1Z, i.e., h 1M = 1M. The image of 1M ≤ 2 ∈ 2 ∗ 8 8 under η is isomorphic to (1M +L )/L = 2n ℓ k 4ℓ 8k. The first part of 8 ∗ ∗ ∼ − − × × (iii) follows. For the restof (ii), one has G N by Corollary2.3. Recallnotationsfrom C ≤ Def.2.6. ItisclearthatG (G T)D . TheactionofG T ontheVFimplies X C ≤ ∩ e ∩ thatG meetseverycosetofG T in(G T)D ,i.e.,(G T)D =(G T)G , X X whenceCG /(G T)=D . ∩ ∩ e ∩ e ∩ C C C∩ ∼ X The last two statements of (iii) follow from (ii), the structure of G T and ∩ Proposition5.10(ii). Inmoredetail,G N actsonX andonF. Infact,thereis ∩ theG N-equivariantmapF X/ 1 by 1 x( 1)2 1(ex+e x) x , ∩ −→ {± } 16 − ±4 − 7→{± } for x X. Now, on X/ 1 , G N induces W /D . The kernel modulo X X ∈ {± } ∩ G is at most a group of order 2n, where n = X/ 1 . On the other hand, C | {± }| 10