Explicit String bundles

Abstract

While higher bundles are of clear relevance to higher gauge theory, examples other than abelian bundle gerbes are hard to come across. One would in particular like to see 2-bundles where the structure 2-group is the String 2-group associated to a compact simple simply-connected Lie group. This talk will outline a method to construct many examples over homogeneous spaces. We shall also consider one example in detail, giving explicit formulas for the crossed-module-valued Cech cocycle arising from a local trivialisation.

Notes from a talk delivered at Herriot-Watt University on 26 June 2014 at the Workshop on Higher Gauge Theory and Higher Quantization