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Let O_25 be the vertex algebraic braided tensor category of finite-length modules for the Virasoro Lie algebra at central charge 25 whose composition factors are the irreducible quotients of reducible Verma modules. We show that O_25 is rigid and that its simple objects generate a semisimple tensor subcategory that is braided tensor equivalent to an abelian 3-cocycle twist of the category of finite-dimensional sl_2-modules. We also show that this sl_2-type subcategory is braid-reversed tensor equivalent to a similar category for the Virasoro algebra at central charge 1. As an application, we construct a simple conformal vertex algebra which contains the Virasoro vertex operator algebra of central charge 25 as a PSL_2(C)-orbifold. We also use our results to study Arakawa's chiral universal centralizer algebra of SL_2 at level -1, showing that it has a symmetric tensor category of representations equivalent to Rep PSL_2(C). This algebra is an extension of the tensor product of Virasoro vertex operator algebras of central charges 1 and 25, analogous to the modified regular representations of the Virasoro algebra constructed earlier for generic central charges by I. Frenkel-Styrkas and I. Frenkel-M. Zhu.

We construct two non-semisimple braided ribbon tensor categories of modules for each singlet vertex operator algebra M(p), p≥2. The first category consists of all finite-length M(p)-modules with atypical composition factors, while the second is the subcategory of modules that induce to local modules for the triplet vertex operator algebra W(p). We show that every irreducible module has a projective cover in the second of these categories, although not in the first, and we compute all fusion products involving atypical irreducible modules and their projective covers.

We find sufficient conditions for the construction of vertex algebraic intertwining operators, among generalized Verma modules for an affine Lie algebra g^, from g-module homomorphisms. When g=sl_2, these results extend previous joint work with J. Yang, but the method used here is different. Here, we construct intertwining operators by solving Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov equations for three-point correlation functions associated to g^, and we identify obstructions to the construction arising from the possible non-existence of series solutions having a prescribed form.

Suppose V^G is the fixed-point vertex operator subalgebra of a compact group G acting on a simple abelian intertwining algebra V. We show that if all irreducible V^G-modules contained in V live in some braided tensor category of V^G-modules, then they generate a tensor subcategory equivalent to the category Rep G of finite-dimensional representations of G, with associativity and braiding isomorphisms modified by the abelian 3-cocycle defining the abelian intertwining algebra structure on V. Additionally, we show that if the fusion rules for the irreducible V^G-modules contained in V agree with the dimensions of spaces of intertwiners among G-modules, then the irreducibles contained in V already generate a braided tensor category of V^G-modules. These results do not require rigidity on any tensor category of V^G-modules and thus apply to many examples where braided tensor category structure is known to exist but rigidity is not known; for example they apply when V^G is C_2-cofinite but not necessarily rational. When V^G is both C_2-cofinite and rational and V is a vertex operator algebra, we use the equivalence between Rep G and the corresponding subcategory of V^G-modules to show that V is also rational. As another application, we show that a certain category of modules for the Virasoro algebra at central charge 1 admits a braided tensor category structure equivalent to Rep SU(2), up to modification by an abelian 3-cocycle.