Survey of bundle gerbes in geometry, field theory, and quantization.
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We consider the notion of stable isomorphism of bundle gerbes. It has the consequence that the stable isomorphism classes of bundle gerbes over a manifold M are in bijective correspondence with H^3(M, Z). Stable isomorphism sheds light on the local theory of bundle gerbes and enables us to develop a classifying theory …
In this paper we study n-composition series of affine manifolds. One composition series are classified using gerbe theory. It is natural to think that n-composition series must be classified using n-gerbe theory. In the last section of this, we propose a notion of abelian n-gerbe theory
New theory connects non-abelian bundle gerbes to abelian ones.
We study non-abelian differentiable gerbes over stacks using the theory of Lie groupoids. More precisely, we develop the theory of connections on Lie groupoid -extensions, which we call "connections on gerbes", and study the induced connections on various associated bundles. We also prove analogues of the Bianchi id…
Study fractional structures on bundle gerbe modules using rational homotopy theory.
This masters thesis reviews bundle gerbe theory and the well-known basic bundle gerbe over SU(n). We introduce the cup product bundle gerbe, and show it is stably isomorphic to the pullback of the basic bundle gerbe by the Weyl map. This result enriches our understanding of the basic bundle gerbe, which has numerous ap…
This thesis reviews the theory of bundle gerbes and then examines the higher dimensional notion of a bundle 2-gerbe. The notion of a bundle 2-gerbe connection and 2-curving are introduced and it is shown that there is a class in associated to any bundle 2-gerbe.
This thesis develops the theory of bundle gerbes and examines a number of useful constructions in this theory. These allow us to gain a greater insight into the structure of bundle gerbes and related objects. Furthermore they naturally lead to some interesting applications in physics.
The paper reviews a correspondence between Double Field Theory and bundle gerbes.
We present a review of bundle gerbes, emphasizing their relations to Lie groups. Indeed, compact Lie groups do not only carry the structure of a Riemannian manifold, but also canonical families of bundle gerbes. We recall the construction of these bundle gerbes and their relation to loop groups. We discuss several alge…
Abelian gerbes and twisted bundles describe the topology of the NS-NS 3-form gauge field strength H. We review how they have been usefully applied to study and resolve global anomalies in open string theory. Abelian 2-gerbes and twisted nonabelian gerbes describe the topology of the 4-form field strength G of M-theory.…
For a gerbe $\Y$ over a smooth proper Deligne-Mumford stack $\B$ banded by a finite group , we prove a structure result on the Gromov-Witten theory of $\Y$, expressing Gromov-Witten invariants of $\Y$ in terms of Gromov-Witten invariants of $\B$ twisted by various flat -gerbes on $\B$. This is interpreted as a…
We study geometry on real gerbes in the spirit of Cheeger-Simons theory. The concepts of adaptations and holonomy forms are introduced for flat connections on real gerbes. Their relations to complex gerbes with connections are presented, as well as results in loop and map spaces.
Given a family of Dirac operators with vanishing spectral flow we construct a thin-invariant rank-one field theory in the sense of Turner and Willerton arXiv:math.AT/0201116. Our construction of the field theory generalizes the one of the index gerbe by Lott, arXiv:math.DG/0106177, and it also complements the relation …
Constructs small bundle gerbes and proves index theorems for manifolds.
An introduction to the theory of bundle gerbes and their relationship to Hitchin-Chatterjee gerbes is presented. Topics covered are connective structures, triviality and stable isomorphism as well as examples and applications.
New result on finite gerbes simplifies classification of certain bundles.
We develop the theory of simplicial extensions for bundle gerbes and their characteristic classes with a view towards studying descent problems and equivariance for bundle gerbes. Equivariant bundle gerbes are important in the study of orbifold sigma models. We consider in detail two examples: the basic bundle gerbe on…
We review a systematic construction of the 2-stack of bundle gerbes via descent, and extend it to non-abelian gerbes. We review the role of non-abelian gerbes in orientifold sigma models, for the anomaly cancellation in supersymmetric sigma models, and in a geometric description of so-called non-geometric T-duals.
Let be a compact, simply connected simple Lie group. We give a construction of an equivariant gerbe with connection on , with equivariant 3-curvature representing a generator of . Technical tools developed in this context include a gluing construction for gerbes and a theory of equivariant bundle ge…
Bundle gerbes are a higher version of line bundles, we present nonabelian bundle gerbes as a higher version of principal bundles. Connection, curving, curvature and gauge transformations are studied both in a global coordinate independent formalism and in local coordinates. These are the gauge fields needed for the con…
We develop the theory of Chern-Simons bundle 2-gerbes and multiplicative bundle gerbes associated to any principal -bundle with connection and a class in $H^4(BG, \ZZ)$ for a compact semi-simple Lie group . The Chern-Simons bundle 2-gerbe realises differential geometrically the Cheeger-Simons invariant. We apply …
The goal of this paper is to apply the universal gerbe of \cite{CMi1} and \cite{CMi2} to give an alternative, simple and more unified view of the relationship between index theory and gerbes. We discuss determinant bundle gerbes \cite{CMMi1} and the index gerbe of \cite{L} for the case of families of Dirac operators on…
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.
From a certain strongly equivariant bundle gerbe with connection and curving over a smooth manifold on which a Lie group acts, we construct under some conditions a bundle gerbe with connection and curving over the quotient space. In general, the construction requires a choice, and we can consequently obtain distinct st…
Hermitian bundle gerbes with connection are geometric objects for which a notion of surface holonomy can be defined for closed oriented surfaces. We systematically introduce bundle gerbes by closing the pre-stack of trivial bundle gerbes under descent. Inspired by structures arising in a representation theoretic approa…
The notion of a higher bundle gerbe is introduced to give a geometric realization of the higher degree integral cohomology of certain manifolds. We consider examples using the infinite dimensional spaces arising in gauge theories.
In gauge theory, the Faddeev-Mickelsson-Shatashvili anomaly arises as a prolongation problem for the action of the gauge group on a bundle of projective Fock spaces. In this paper, we study this anomaly from the point of view of bundle gerbes and give several equivalent descriptions of the obstruction. These include li…
In a previous paper we outlined how discrete torsion can be understood geometrically as an analogue of orbifold U(1) Wilson lines. In this paper we shall prove the remaining details. More precisely, in this paper we describe gerbes in terms of objects known as stacks (essentially, sheaves of categories), and develop mu…
The geometry of nonholonomic bundle gerbes, provided with nonlinear connection structure, and nonholonomic gerbe modules is elaborated as the theory of Clifford modules on nonholonomic manifolds which positively fail to be spin. We explore an approach to such nonholonomic Dirac operators and derive the related Atiyah-S…
Study quantum aspects of 1-form symmetries using BV-BRST cohomology and gerbes.
The purpose of this contribution is to point out connections between recent ideas about gerbes and gerbal actions (as higher categorical extension of representation theory) and old discussion in quantum field theory on commutator anomalies, gauge group extensions, and 3-cocycles. The unifying concept is the classical o…
The use of bundle gerbes and bundle gerbe modules is considered as a replacement for the usual theory of Clifford modules on manifolds that fail to be spin. It is shown that both sides of the Atiyah-Singer index formula for coupled Dirac operators can be given natural interpretations using this language and that the re…
We generalize the notion of a small sheaf of sets over a topological space or manifold to define the notion of a small stack of groupoids over an étale topological or differentiable stack. We then provide a construction analogous to the étalé space construction in this context, establishing an equivalence of 2-categori…
Topological twists for 4d N=2 theories depend on spacetime type, gerbe connections, and generalized spin-c structures.
It has been argued by Witten and others that in the presence of a nontrivial B-field, D-brane charges in type IIB string theories are measured by twisted K-theory. In joint work with Bouwknegt, Carey and Murray it was proved that twisted K-theory is canonically isomorphic to bundle gerbe K-theory, whose elements are or…
We construct a new effective orbifold $\widehat{\Y}$ with an -gerbe to study an -gerbe on a -gerbe $\Y$ over an orbifold $\B$. We view the former as the relative dual, relative to $\B$, of the latter. We show that the two pairs $(\Y, \mathfrak{t})$ and $(\widehat{\Y}, c)$ have isomorphic…
The Wess-Zumino term in two-dimensional conformal field theory is best understood as a surface holonomy of a bundle gerbe. We define additional structure for a bundle gerbe that allows to extend the notion of surface holonomy to unoriented surfaces. This provides a candidate for the Wess-Zumino term for WZW models on u…
We generalize the notion of parallel transport along paths for abelian bundles to parallel transport along surfaces for abelian gerbes using an embedded Topological Quantum Field Theory (TQFT) approach. We show both for bundles and gerbes with connection that there is a one-to-one correspondence between their local des…
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 review and then combine two aspects of the theory of bundle gerbes. The first concerns lifting bundle gerbes and connections on those, developed by Murray and Gomi. Lifting gerbes represent obstructions against extending the structure group of a principal bundle. The second is the transgression of gerbes to loop spa…
Theory of 2-vector bundles for smooth manifolds developed.
The notion of a gerbe with connection is conveniently reformulated in terms of the simplicial deRham complex. In particular the usual Chern-Weil and Chern-Simons theory is well adapted to this framework and rather easily gives rise to `characteristic gerbes' associated to families of bundles and connections. In turn th…
We introduce differentiable stacks and explain the relationship with Lie groupoids. Then we study -bundles and -gerbes over differentiable stacks. In particular, we establish the relationship between -gerbes and groupoid -central extensions. We define connections and curvings for groupoid -cent…
A new spin structure is constructed for a bundle of harmonic forms.
By using the relation between foliations and exotic R^4, orbifold -theory deformed by a gerbe can be interpreted as coming from the change in the smoothness of R^4. We give various interpretations of integral 3-rd cohomology classes on S^3 and discuss the difference between large and small exotic R^4. Then we show t…
Constructs differential models for twisted Spin^c-bordism and its dual, defining a new anomaly map.