Related papers: A Loop Space Formulation for Geometric Lifting Pro…

In this paper, nonholonomic gerbes will be naturally derived for manifolds and vector bundle spaces provided with nonintegrable distributions (in brief, nonholonomic spaces). An important example of such gerbes is related to distributions…

This paper is a review of the relationship between the metric formulation of (2+1)-dimensional gravity and the loop observables of Rovelli and Smolin. I emphasize the possibility of reconstructing the geometry, via the theory of geometric…

This paper makes mathematically precise the idea that conditional probabilities are analogous to path liftings in geometry. The idea of lifting is modelled in terms of the category-theoretic concept of a lens, which can be interpreted as a…

We use bundle gerbes and their connections and curvings to obtain an explicit formula for a de Rham representative of the string class of a loop group bundle. This is related to earlier work on calorons.

In the paper a Riemannian structure on the tangent bundle is defined by using a statistical structure $(g,\nabla)$ on the base manifold. Expressions for various curvatures of the structure are derived. Some rigidity results of the structure…

We give a generalization of the notion of a Cartan-Ehresmann connection from Lie algebras to L-infinity algebras and use it to study the obstruction theory of lifts through higher String-like extensions of Lie algebras. We find…

The moduli space $M$ of semi-stable rank 2 bundles with trivial determinant over a complex curve carries involutions naturally associated to 2-torsion points on the Jacobian of the curve. For every lift of a 2-torsion point to a 4-torsion…

We develop a description of higher gauge theory with higher groupoids as gauge structure from first principles. This approach captures ordinary gauge theories and gauged sigma models as well as their categorifications on a very general…

We give an explicit formula for the holonomy of the orientation bundle of a family of real Cauchy-Riemann operators. A special case of this formula resolves the orientability question for spaces of maps from Riemann surfaces with Lagrangian…

This expository paper details the theory of rank one Higgs bundles over a closed Riemann surface X and their relationship to representations of the fundamental group of X. We construct an equivalence between the deformation theories of flat…

We introduce the notion of central extension of gerbes on a topological space. We then show that there are obstruction classes to lifting objects and isomorphisms in a central extension. We also discuss pronilpotent gerbes. These results…

In the loop approach to the quantisation of gravity, one uses a Hilbert space which is too singular for some operators to be realised as derivatives. This is usually addressed by instead using finite difference operators at the Planck…

In the present paper we develop a framework in which questions of quantum ergodicity for operators acting on sections of hermitian vector bundles over Riemannian manifolds can be studied. We are particularly interested in the case of…

These notes provide a self-contained introduction to Lie algebroids, Lie-Rinehart algebras and their universal envelopes. This review is motivated by the speculation that higher-spin gauge symmetries should admit a natural formulation as…

Multiplicative bundle gerbes are gerbes over a Lie group which are compatible with the group structure. In this article connections on such bundle gerbes are introduced and studied. It is shown that multiplicative bundle gerbes with…

Infinitesimal symmetries of $S^1$-bundle gerbes are modelled with multiplicative vector fields on Lie groupoids. It is shown that a connective structure on a bundle gerbe gives rise to a natural horizontal lift of multiplicative vector…

After introducing some motivations for this survey, we describe a formalism to parametrize a wide class of algebraic structures occurring naturally in various problems of topology, geometry and mathematical physics. This allows us to define…

This survey provides an introduction to basic questions and techniques surrounding the topology of the moduli space of stable Higgs bundles on a Riemann surface. Through examples, we demonstrate how the structure of the cohomology ring of…

We argue that a description of supersymmetric extended objects from a unified geometric point of view requires an enlargement of superspace. To this aim we study in a systematic way how superspace groups and algebras arise from Grassmann…

Coarse geometry, and in particular coarse homotopy theory, has proven to be a powerful tool for approaching problems in geometric group theory and higher index theory. In this paper, we continue to develop theory in this area by proving a…