Let $W = \mathbb {C}[t,t^{-1}]\partial _t$ be the Witt algebra of algebraic vector fields on $\mathbb {C}^\times$ and let $V\!ir$ be the Virasoro algebra, the unique nontrivial central extension of $W$. In this paper, we study the Poisson ideal structure of the symmetric algebras of $V\!ir$ and $W$, as well as several related Lie algebras. We classify prime Poisson ideals and Poisson primitive ideals of $\operatorname {S}(V\!ir)$ and $\operatorname {S}(W)$. In particular, we show that the only functions in $W^*$ which vanish on a nontrivial Poisson ideal (that is, the only maximal ideals of $\operatorname {S}(W)$ with a nontrivial Poisson core) are given by linear combinations of derivatives at a finite set of points; we call such functions local. Given a local function $\chi \in W^*$, we construct the associated Poisson primitive ideal through computing the algebraic symplectic leaf of $\chi$, which gives a notion of coadjoint orbit in our setting. As an application, we prove a structure theorem for subalgebras of $V\!ir$ of finite codimension and show, in particular, that any such subalgebra of $V\!ir$ contains the central element $z$, substantially generalising a result of Ondrus and Wiesner on subalgebras of codimension one. As a consequence, we deduce that $\operatorname {S}(V\!ir)/(z-\zeta )$ is Poisson simple if and only if $\zeta \neq ~0$.

In this paper, we give a new method to classify all simple cuspidal modules for the $\mathbb {Z}$-graded and $1/2\mathbb {Z}$-graded Ovsienko–Roger superalgebras. Using this result, we classify all simple Harish–Chandra modules over some related Lie superalgebras, including the $N=1$ BMS$_3$ superalgebra, the super $W(2,2)$, etc.

The Virasoro algebra $\mathcal {L}$ is an infinite-dimensional Lie algebra with basis {Lm, C| m ∈ ℤ} and relations [Lm, Ln] = (n − m)Lm+n + δm+n,0((m3 − m)/12)C, [Lm, C] = 0 for m, n ∈ ℤ. Let $\mathfrak a$ be the subalgebra of $\mathcal {L}$ spanned by Li for i ≥ −1. For any triple (μ, λ, α) of complex numbers with μ ≠ 0, λ ≠ 0 and any non-trivial $\mathfrak a$-module V satisfying the condition: for any v ∈ V there exists a non-negative integer m such that Liv = 0 for all i ≥ m, non-weight $\mathcal {L}$-modules on the linear tensor product of V and ℂ[∂], denoted by $\mathcal {M}(V,\mu ,\Omega (\lambda ,\alpha ))\ (\Omega (\lambda ,\alpha )=\mathbb {C}[\partial ]$ as vector spaces), are constructed in this paper. We prove that $\mathcal {M}(V,\mu ,\Omega (\lambda ,\alpha ))$ is simple if and only if μ ≠ 1, λ ≠ 0, α ≠ 0. We also give necessary and sufficient conditions for two such simple $\mathcal {L}$-modules being isomorphic. Finally, these simple $\mathcal {L}$-modules $\mathcal {M}(V,\mu ,\Omega (\lambda ,\alpha ))$ are proved to be new for V not being the highest weight $\mathfrak a$-module whose highest weight is non-zero.

The Beauville–Voisin conjecture for a hyperkähler manifold $X$ states that the subring of the Chow ring $A^{\ast }(X)$ generated by divisor classes and Chern characters of the tangent bundle injects into the cohomology ring of $X$. We prove a weak version of this conjecture when $X$ is the Hilbert scheme of points on a K3 surface for the subring generated by divisor classes and tautological classes. This in particular implies the weak splitting conjecture of Beauville for these geometries. In the process, we extend Lehn’s formula and the Li–Qin–Wang $W_{1+\infty }$ algebra action from cohomology to Chow groups for the Hilbert scheme of an arbitrary smooth projective surface $S$.

In this paper, it is proved that all irreducible Harish-Chandra modules over the ℚ Heisenberg–Virasoro algebra are of the intermediate series (all weight spaces are at most one-dimensional).