The Vanishing of the Low-Dimensional Cohomology of the Witt and the Virasoro algebra

Abstract: A proof of the vanishing of the third cohomology group of the Witt algebra with values in the adjoint module is given. Moreover, we provide a sketch of the proof of the one-dimensionality of the third cohomology group of the Virasoro algebra with values in the adjoint module. The proofs given in the present article are completely algebraic and independent of any underlying topology. They are a generalization of the ones provided by Schlichenmaier, who proved the vanishing of the second cohomology group of the Witt and the Virasoro algebra by using purely algebraic methods. In the case of the third cohomology group though, extra difficulties arise and the involved proofs are distinctly more complicated. The first cohomology group can easily be computed; we will give an explicit proof of its vanishing in the appendix, in order to illustrate our techniques.