The five simple exceptional complex Lie superalgbras of vector fields are described. One of them is new; the other four are explicitely described for the first time. All of the exceptional Lie superalgebras are obtained with the help of the Cartan prolongation or a generalized prolongation. The description of several of the exceptional Lie superalgebras is associated with the Lie superalgebra a...

The purpose of this paper is to study Hom-Lie superalgebras, that is a superspace with a bracket for which the superJacobi identity is twisted by a homomorphism. This class is a particular case of Γ-graded quasi-Lie algebras introduced by Larsson and Silvestrov. In this paper, we characterize Hom-Lie admissible superalgebras and provide a construction theorem from which we derive a one paramete...

A superconformal algebra is a simple complex Lie superalgebra g spanned by the coefficients of a finite family of pairwise local fields a(z) = ∑ n∈Z a(n)z , one of which is the Virasoro field L(z), [3, 8, 11]. Superconformal algebras play an important role in the string theory and conformal field theory. The Lie superalgebras K(N) of contact vector fields with Laurent polynomials as coefficient...

We define regular Kac-Moody superalgebras and classify them using integrable modules. We give conditions for irreducible highest weight modules of regular Kac-Moody superalgebras to be integrable. This paper is a major part of the proof for the classification of finite-growth contragredient Lie superalgebras. The results of this paper are a crucial part of the proof for the classification of co...

The algebraic cohoroology and the spectral sequences for a Z2-graded Lie algebra are briefly reviewed. The reducibility property of a strongly semisiiaple Lie superalgebra is established. The role of second and third cohomologies in the deformation of a Lie superalgebra is discussed. Using spectral sequences, the second cohomology of full BRS algebra is shown to be W and the third cohomology be...

In this paper, we shall classify “quadratic” conformal superalgebras by certain compatible pairs of a Lie superalgebra and a Novikov superalgebra. Four general constructions of such pairs are given. Moreover, we shall classify such pairs related to simple Novikov algebras.

We give an analogue for vertex operator algebras and superalgebras of the notion of endomorphism ring of a vector space by means of a notion of “local system of vertex operators” for a (super) vector space. We first prove that any local system of vertex operators on a (super) vector space M has a natural vertex (super)algebra structure with M as a module. Then we prove that for a vertex (operat...

This text is an extended version of a part of my 1980 Trieste preprint [16]. In this preprint I gave, in particular, an expression for the action of a Lie superalgebra g on the g-module coinduced from an h-module V for the case where both g and V are finite-dimensional and g decomposes (as a linear space, not Lie superalgebra) into a direct sum g− ⊕ h with g− a Lie superalgebra. The importance ...

Making use of a Howe duality involving the infinite-dimensional Lie superalgebra ĝl∞|∞ and the finite-dimensional group GLl of [CW3] we derive a character formula for a certain class of irreducible quasi-finite representations of ĝl∞|∞ in terms of hook Schur functions. We use the reduction procedure of ĝl∞|∞ to ĝln|n to derive a character formula for a certain class of level 1 highest weight ir...