I am looking for an as gentle and pedagogical as possible introduction that explains the Virasoro algebra and its applications in theoretical physics; finally I am interested in its application in string theory.
The short explanations in the physics books I am reading are not enough to make me feel comfortable about the Virasoro algebra so I need to read some more ...
I prefer shorter than whole book references which are optimally freely accessible, but if this does not work other things are welcome too.
I know a little bit about Lie algebras and conformal transformations, but the central extension issue confuses me. What I am looking for could be something at the level of these BRST lecture notes I could mostly follow.
A nice and friendly user at Quora has pointed out these lecture notes to me.
I have not jet fully read it, but is seems very useful to me and obviously explains some additional things I am missing.