arXiv research

Geometric proof of contractibility of unitary group in strong topology.

The Dixmier-Douady class connects homeomorphisms and foliations.

A Dirac structure on a vector bundle V is a maximal isotropic subbundle E of the direct sum of V with its dual. We show how to associate to any Dirac structure a Dixmier-Douady bundle A, that is, a Z/2Z-graded bundle of C*-algebras with typical fiber the compact operators on a Hilbert space. The construction has good f…

An equivariant bundle gerbe à la Meinrenken over a $G$-manifold $M$ is known to be a special type of $S^1$-gerbe over the differentiable stack $[M/G]$. We prove that the natural morphism relating the Cartan and simplicial models of equivariant cohomology in degree 3 maps the Dixmier-Douady class of an equivariant bundl…

On the basis of A. L. Carey, D. Crowley, M. K. Murray's work, we exhibit a cocycle in the simplicial de Rham complex which represents the Dixmier-Douady class.

This paper exhibits equivalences of 2-stacks between certain models of $\mathbb{S}^1$-gerbes and differential 3-cocycles. We focus primarily on the model of Dixmier-Douady bundles, and provide an equivalence between the 2-stack of Dixmier-Douady bundles and the 2-stack of differential 3-cocycles of height 1, where the …

When a Lie group $G$ has a central $U(1)$-extension, there is a cocycle in the simplicial de Rham complex $Ω^3(NG)$ which represents the Dixmier-Douady class. Mickelsson and Brylinski, McLaughlin constructed a central $U(1)$-extension $\widehat{LSU(2)} \rightarrow LSU(2)$ whose Dixmier-Douady class in $Ω^3(NLSU(2))$ is…

We clarify the relation between the Dixmier-Douady class on the space of self adjoint Fredholm operators (`universal B-field') and the curvature of determinant bundles over infinite-dimensional Grassmannians. In particular, in the case of Dirac type operators on a three dimensional compact manifold we obtain a simple a…

We introduce the infinitesimal symmetries of Dixmier-Douady gerbes over a manifold M, both with and without connective structures and curvings. We explore the algebraic structure possessed by these symmetries, and relate them to equivariant gerbes via a "differentiation functor". In the case that a gerbe G is equipped …

Just as $\Cstar$ principal bundles provide a geometric realisation of two-dimensional integral cohomology; gerbes or sheaves of groupoids, provide a geometric realisation of three dimensional integral cohomology through their Dixmier-Douady class. I consider an alternative, related, geometric realisation of three dimen…

We consider Real bundle gerbes on manifolds equipped with an involution and prove that they are classified by their Real Dixmier-Douady class in Grothendieck's equivariant sheaf cohomology. We show that the Grothendieck group of Real bundle gerbe modules is isomorphic to twisted KR-theory for a torsion Real Dixmier-Dou…

We study $S^1$-bundles and $S^1$-gerbes over differentiable stacks in terms of Lie groupoids, and construct Chern classes and Dixmier-Douady classes in terms of analogues of connections and curvature.

This paper is a gentle introduction to some recent results involving the theory of gerbes over orbifolds for topologists, geometers and physicists. We introduce gerbes on manifolds, orbifolds, the Dixmier-Douady class, Beilinson-Deligne orbifold cohomology, Cheeger-Simons orbifold cohomology and string connections.

Let $G$ be a Lie group and $G\to\Aut(G)$ be the canonical group homomorphism induced by the adjoint action of a group on itself. We give an explicit description of a 1-1 correspondence between Morita equivalence classes of, on the one hand, principal 2-group $[G\to\Aut(G)]$-bundles over Lie groupoids and, on the other …

Let $(P, Y)$ be a bundle gerbe over a fibre bundle $Y \to M$. We show that if $M$ is simply-connected and the fibres of $Y \to M$ are connected and finite-dimensional then the Dixmier-Douady class of $(P, Y)$ is torsion. This corrects and extends an earlier result of the first author.

Let G be a compact, simple, simply connected Lie group. A theorem of Freed-Hopkins-Teleman identifies the level k fusion ring R_k(G) of G with the twisted equivariant K-homology at level k+h, where h is the dual Coxeter number. In this paper, we review this result using the language of Dixmier-Douady bundles. We show t…

We consider the construction of the basic bundle gerbe on SU(n) introduced by Meinrenken and show that it extends to a range of groups with unitary actions on a Hilbert space including U(n), diagonal tori and the Banach Lie group of unitary operators differing from the identity by an element of a Schatten ideal. In all…

In this paper, we construct the index bundle gerbe of a family of self-adjoint Dirac-type operators, refining a construction of Segal. In a special case, we construct a geometric bundle gerbe called the caloron bundle gerbe, which comes with a natural connection and curving, and show that it is isomorphic to the analyt…

An index theory for projective families of elliptic pseudodifferential operators is developed when the twisting, i.e. Dixmier-Douady, class is decomposable. One of the features of this special case is that the corresponding Azumaya bundle can be realized in terms of smoothing operators. The topological and the analytic…

We give an Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index theory construction of the bundle of fermionic Fock spaces parametrized by vector potentials in odd space dimensions and prove that this leads in a simple manner to the known Schwinger terms (Faddeev-Mickelsson cocycle) for the gauge group action. We relate the APS construction to …

The aim of this talk is to explain how symmetry breaking in a quantum field theory problem leads to a study of projective bundles, Dixmier-Douady classes, and associated gerbes. A gerbe manifests itself in different equivalent ways. Besides the cohomological description as a DD class, it can be defined in terms of a fa…

We introduce differentiable stacks and explain the relationship with Lie groupoids. Then we study $S^1$-bundles and $S^1$-gerbes over differentiable stacks. In particular, we establish the relationship between $S^1$-gerbes and groupoid $S^1$-central extensions. We define connections and curvings for groupoid $S^1$-cent…

Let G be a compact, simple and simply connected Lie group and $\A$ be an equivariant Dixmier-Douady bundle over G. For any fixed level k, we can define a G-C*-algebra $C_{\A^{k+h}}(G)$ as all the continuous sections of the tensor power $\A^{k+h}$ vanishing at infinity. A deep theorem by Freed-Hopkins-Teleman showed tha…

We construct a prequantum 2-Hilbert space for any line bundle gerbe whose Dixmier-Douady class is torsion. Analogously to usual prequantisation, this 2-Hilbert space has the category of sections of the line bundle gerbe as its underlying 2-vector space. These sections are obtained as certain morphism categories in Wald…

For a finite rank projective bundle over a compact manifold, so associated to a torsion, Dixmier-Douady, 3-class, w, on the manifold, we define the ring of differential operators `acting on sections of the projective bundle' in a formal sense. In particular, any oriented even-dimensional manifold carries a projective s…

Paper studies non-associativity in quantum systems with magnetic fields.

A bundle gerbe is constructed from an oriented smooth vector bundle of even rank with a fiberwise inner product, over a compact connected orientable smooth manifold with Riemannian metric. From a trivialization of the bundle gerbe is constructed an irreducible Clifford module bundle, a spinor bundle over the smooth fre…

We study the geometry and topology of (filtered) algebra-bundles ${\bfΨ}^{\mathbb Z}$ over a smooth manifold $X$ with typical fibre $Ψ^{\mathbb Z}(Z; V)$, the algebra of classical pseudodifferential operators of integral order on the compact manifold $Z$ acting on smooth sections of a vector bundle $V$. First a theorem…

This paper classifies Hamiltonian actions by symplectic groupoids using Delzant subspaces.