Related papers: Closed non-abelian strings
We introduce an axiomatic framework for the parallel transport of connections on gerbes. It incorporates parallel transport along curves and along surfaces, and is formulated in terms of gluing axioms and smoothness conditions. The…
Many physical theories, including notably string theory, require non-abelian higher gauge fields defining higher holonomy. Previous approaches to such higher connections on categorified principal bundles require these to be fake flat. This…
In this paper we establish a one-to-one correspondence between $S^1$-gerbes with connections, on the one hand, and their holonomies, for simply connected manifolds, or their parallel transports, in the general case, on the other hand. This…
I propose a way of unambiguously parallel transporting fields on non-Abelian flux tubes, or strings, by means of two gauge fields. One gauge field transports along the tube, while the other transports normal to the tube. Ambiguity is…
We introduce a nonabelian surface holonomy that is constructed from a one-form gauge potential that takes values in a loop algebra of the $U(N)$ gauge group. The surface holonomy parallel transports a nonabelian string. Although it is not…
We argue that the relevant higher gauge group for the non-abelian generalization of the self-dual string equation is the string 2-group. We then derive the corresponding equations of motion and discuss their properties. The underlying…
We collect evidence that the notion of path-ordered non-abelian integration admits an extension to two dimensions. We propose the corresponding notion of non-abelian 2-form along the lines of Lie algebroid theory and argue it is an…
In the context of non-abelian gerbes we define a cubical version of categorical group 2-bundles with connection over a smooth manifold. We define their two-dimensional parallel transport, study its properties, and define non-abelian Wilson…
Surface holonomy and the Wess-Zumino phase play a central role in string theory and Chern-Simons models, yet a completely analytic formulation of their nonabelian counterparts has remained elusive. In this work, we show that Yekutieli's…
Lifting supersymmetric quantum mechanics to loop space yields the superstring. A particle charged under a fiber bundle thereby turns into a string charged under a 2-bundle, or gerbe. This stringification is nothing but categorification. We…
This paper is motivated by recent developments of higher gauge theory. Different from its style of using higher category theory, we try to describe the concept of higher parallel transport within setting of classical principal bundle…
We consider the equations of motion of the non-abelian 5-branes theory recently constructed in http://arxiv.org/abs/arXiv:1203.4224 and find exact string solutions both for uncompactified and compactified spacetime. Although one does not…
We present an action for a six-dimensional superconformal field theory containing a non-abelian tensor multiplet. All of the ingredients of this action have been available in the literature. We bring these pieces together by choosing the…
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…
As superstring solitons that carry Neuveu-Schwarz charge can be described in terms of gerbes, one expects non-Abelian gerbes to appear e.g. in the exotic six-dimensional world-volume theories of coinciding NS5 branes. We consider open…
We propose a hypothesis that all gauge theories are equivalent to a certain non-standard string theory. Different gauge groups are accounted for by weights ascribed to the world sheets of different topologies. The hypothesis is checked in…
In this paper, we develop the mathematical formulation of metric string structures. These play a crucial role in the formulation of certain six-dimensional superconformal field theories and we believe that they also underlie potential…
A non-abelian generalisation of a theory of gravity coupled to a 2-form gauge field and a dilaton is found, in which the metric and 3-form field strength are Lie algebra-valued. In the abelian limit, the curvature with torsion is self-dual…
Starting with a non-abelian gerbe represented by a non-abelian differential cocycle, with values in a given crossed-module, this paper explicitly calculates a formula for the derivative of the associated surface holonomy of squares mapped…
It has been known long time ago that the low energy dynamics of open-strings is described by non-abelian gauge theories in the same way that the low energy effective description of closed strings is governed by Einstein's gravity. In this…