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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.
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…
Usually bundle gerbes are considered as objects of a 2-groupoid, whose 1-morphisms, called stable isomorphisms, are all invertible. I introduce new 1-morphisms which include stable isomorphisms, trivializations and bundle gerbe modules.…
Many bundle gerbes constructed in practice are either infinite-dimensional, or finite-dimensional but built using submersions that are far from being fibre bundles. Murray and Stevenson proved that gerbes on simply-connected manifolds,…
This is a mostly self-contained survey article about bundle gerbes and some of their recent applications in geometry, field theory, and quantisation. We cover the definition of bundle gerbes with connection and their morphisms, and explain…
Motivated by the problem of constructing explicit geometric string structures, we give a rigid model for bundle 2-gerbes, and define connective structures thereon. This model is designed to make explicit calculations easier in applications…
The topological classification of gerbes, as principal bundles with the structure group the projective unitary group of a complex Hilbert space, over a topological space $H$ is given by the third cohomology $\text{H}^3(H, \Bbb Z)$. When $H$…
We formulate differential cohomology and Chern-Weil theory -- the theory of connections on fiber bundles and of gauge fields -- abstractly in the context of a certain class of higher toposes that we call "cohesive". Cocycles in this…
The initial motivation of this work was to give a topological interpretation of two-periodic twisted de-Rham cohomology which is generalizable to arbitrary coefficients. To this end we develop a sheaf theory in the context of locally…
We show that every bundle gerbe on a supermanifold decomposes into a bundle gerbe over the underlying manifold and a 2-form on the supermanifold. This decomposition is not canonical, but is determined by the choice of a projection map to…
The classification of algebraic vector bundles of rank 2 over smooth affine fourfolds is a notoriously difficult problem. Isomorphism classes of such vector bundles are not uniquely determined by their Chern classes, in contrast to the…
We develop a ready-to-use comprehensive theory for (super) 2-vector bundles over smooth manifolds. It is based on the bicategory of (super) algebras, bimodules, and intertwiners as a model for 2-vector spaces. We discuss symmetric monoidal…
In this paper we introduce the concept of Deligne cohomology of an orbifold. We prove that the third Deligne cohomology group of a smooth \'{e}tale groupoid classify gerbes with connection over the groupoid. We argue that the $B$-field and…
Gerbes are locally connected presheaves of groupoids. They are classified up to local weak equivalence by path components in a 2-cocycle category taking values in all sheaves of groups, their isomorphisms and homotopies. If F is a full…
I categorify the definition of fibre bundle, replacing smooth manifolds with differentiable categories, Lie groups with coherent Lie 2-groups, and bundles with a suitable notion of 2-bundle. To link this with previous work, I show that…
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…
p-Gerbes are a generalization of bundles that have (p+2)-form field strengths. We develop their properties and use them to show that every theory of p-gerbes can be reinterpreted as a gauge theory containing p-dimensional extended objects.…
On negatively curved compact manifolds, it is possible to associate to every closed form a bounded cocycle - hence a bounded cohomology class - via integration over straight simplices. The kernel of this map is contained in the space of…
We introduce and study the category of Hodge microsheaves which is a Hodge-version of the category of microsheaves for a certain class of holomorphic exact symplectic manifolds. We then study Hodge-theoretic version of wrapped sheaves and…
We discuss some aspects of heterotic-Type I duality. We focus on toroidal compactification, with special attention for the topology of the gauge group, and the topology of the bundle. We review the arguments leading to a classification of…