On the classification of the coadjoint orbits of the Sobolev Bott-Virasoro group

The purpose of this paper is to give the classification of the Bott-Virasoro coadjoint orbits, with nonzero central charge, in the functional analytic setting of smooth Hilbert manifolds. The central object of the paper is thus the completion of the Bott-Virasoro group with respect to a Sobolev topology, giving rise to a smooth Hilbert manifold and topological group, called the Sobolev Bott-Virasoro group. As a consequence of this approach, analytic and geometric properties of the coadjoint orbits are studied. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.