Singularities of nilpotent Slodowy slices and collapsing levels of W-algebras

Abstract: We apply results from the geometry of nilpotent orbits and nilpotent Slodowy slices, together with modularity and asymptotic analysis of characters, to prove many new isomorphisms between affine W-algebras and affine Kac-Moody vertex algebras and their finite extensions at specific admissible levels. In particular we identify many new collapsing levels for W-algebras.