Abstract
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 construction of Yang-Mills theories with 2-form gauge potential.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Giraud, J.: Cohomologie non-abélienne. Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften 179, Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1971
Brylinski, J.L.: Loop Spaces, Characteristic Classes And Geometric Quantization. Progress in mathematics 107, Boston: Birkhäuser, 1993
Hitchin, N.: Lectures on special Lagrangian submanifolds. http://arxiv.org/abs/math.dg/9907034, 1999
Chatterjee, D.: On Gerbs. http://www.ma.utexas.edu/users/hausel/hitchin/hitchinstudents/chatterjee.pdf, 1998
Murray, M.K.: Bundle gerbes. J. Lond. Math. Soc 2, 54, 403 (1996)
Bouwknegt, P., Carey, A.L., Mathai, V., Murray, M.K., Stevenson, D.: Twisted K-theory and K-theory of bundle gerbes. Commun. Math. Phys. 228, 17 (2002)
Carey, A.L., Johnson, S., Murray, M.K.: Holonomy on D-branes. http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0204199, 2002
Mackaay, M.: A note on the holonomy of connections in twisted bundles. Cah. Topol. Geom. Differ. Categ. 44, 39–62 (2003)
Mackaay, M., Picken, R.: Holonomy and parallel transport for Abelian gerbes. Adv. Math. 170, 287 (2002)
Carey, A., Mickelsson, J., Murray, M.: Index theory, gerbes, and Hamiltonian quantization. Commun. Math. Phys. 183, 707 (1997)
Carey, A., Mickelsson, J., Murray, M.: Bundle gerbes applied to quantum field theory. Rev. Math. Phys. 12, 65–90 (2000)
Carey, A.L., Mickelsson, J.: The universal gerbe, Dixmier-Douady class, and gauge theory. Lett. Math. Phys. 59, 47 (2002)
Picken, R.: TQFT’s and gerbes. Algebr. Geom. Toplo. 4, 243–272 (2004)
Gawedzki, K., Reis, N.: WZW branes and gerbes. Rev.Math.Phys. 14, 1281–1334 (2002)
Freed, D.S., Witten, E.: Anomalies in string theory with D-branes. http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9907189, 1999
Kapustin, A.: D-branes in a topologically nontrivial B-field. Adv. Theor. Math. Phys. 4, 127 (2000)
Bouwknegt, P., Mathai, V.: D-branes, B-fields and twisted K-theory. JHEP 0003, 007 (2000)
Mickelsson, J.: Gerbes, (twisted) K-theory and the supersymmetric WZW model. http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0206139, 2002
Freed, D.S., Hopkins, M.J., Teleman, C.: Twisted K-theory and Loop Group Representations I. http://arxiv.org/abs/math.AT/0312155, 2003
Witten, E.: D-branes and K-theory. JHEP 9812, 019 (1998)
Witten, E.: Overview of K-theory applied to strings. Int. J. Mod. Phys. A 16, 693 (2001)
Olsen, K., Szabo, R.J.: Constructing D-Branes from K-Theory. Adv. Theor. Math. Phys. 3, 889–1025 (1999)
Dedecker, P.: Sur la cohomologie nonabéliene, I and II. Can. J. Math 12, 231–252 (1960) and 15, 84–93 (1963)
Moerdijk, I.: Introduction to the language of stacks and gerbes. http://arxiv.org/abs/math. AT/0212266, 2002
Moerdijk, I.: Lie Groupoids, Gerbes, and Non-Abelian Cohomology, K-Theory, 28, 207– 258 (2003)
Breen, L., Messing, W.: Differential Geometry of Gerbes. http://arxiv.org/abs/math.AG/0106083, 2001
Attal, R.: Combinatorics of Non-Abelian Gerbes with Connection and Curvature. http://arxiv.org/abs/math-ph/0203056, 2002
Kalkkinen, J.: Non-Abelian gerbes from strings on a branched space-time. http://arxiv.org/abs/ hep-th/9910048, 1999
Baez, J.: Higher Yang-Mills theory. http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0206130, 2002
Hofman, C.: Nonabelian 2-Forms. http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0207017, 2002
Kobayashi, S., Nomizu, K.: Foundations od Differential Geometry, Volume I. New York: Wiley- Interscience 1996
Husemoller, D.: Fibre bundles. 3 rd edition, Graduate Texts in Mathematics 50, Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1994
Grothendieck, A.: Séminaire de Géometri Algébrique du Bois-Marie, 1967-69 (SGA 7), I. LNM 288, Berlin-Heidelberg-Newyork Springer-Verlag, 1972
Breen, L.: Bitorseurs et cohomologie non abéliene. In: The Grothendieck Festschrift I, Progress in Math. 86, Boston: Birkhäuser 1990, pp. 401–476
Brown, K.: Cohomology of Groups. Graduate Texts in Mathematics 50, Berlin: Springer Verlag, 1982
Murray, M.K., Stevenson, D.: Bundle gerbes: stable isomorphisms and local theory. J. Lon. Math. Soc 2, 62, 925 (2000)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by M.R. Douglas
Acknowledgement We have benefited from discussions with L. Breen, D. Husemoller, A. Alekseev, L. Castellani, J. Kalkkinen, J. Mickelsson, R. Minasian, D. Stevenson and R. Stora.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Aschieri, P., Cantini, L. & Jurčo, B. Nonabelian Bundle Gerbes, Their Differential Geometry and Gauge Theory. Commun. Math. Phys. 254, 367–400 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00220-004-1220-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00220-004-1220-6