In this paper we construct an explicit geometric model for the group of gerbes over an orbifold $X$. We show how from its curvature we can obtain its characteristic class in $H^3(X)$ via Chern-Weil theory. For an arbitrary gerbe $\LL$, a twisting $\Korb{\LL}(X)$ of the orbifold $K$-theory of $X$ is constructed, and shown to generalize previous twisting by Rosenberg, Witten, Atiyah-Segal and Bowknegt et. al. in the smooth case and by Adem-Ruan for discrete torsion on an orbifold.
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the notion of loop groupoid associated to a groupoid. After studying the general properties of the loop groupoid, we show how this notion provides a very natural geometric interpretation for the twisted sectors of an orbifold, and for the inner local systems introduced by Ruan by means of a natural generalization of the concept holonomy of a gerbe.
We compute the integral cohomology of certain semi-direct products arising from a linear G-action on the n-torus, where G is a finite group. The main application is the complete calculation of torsion gerbes for certain six dimensional examples arising from string theory.
In this paper we compute explicit formulas for the holonomy map for a gerbe with connection over an orbifold. We show that the holonomy descends to a transgression map in Deligne cohomology. We prove that this recovers both the inner local systems in Ruan's theory of twisted orbifold cohomology and the local system of Freed-Hopkins-Teleman in their work in twisted K-theory. In the case in which the orbifold is simply a manifold we recover previous results of Gawedzki and Brylinski.
Given a double cover $π: \mathcal{G} \rightarrow \hat{\mathcal{G}}$ of finite groupoids, we explicitly construct twisted loop transgression maps, $τ_π$ and $τ_π^{ref}$, thereby associating to a Jandl $n$-gerbe $\hatλ$ on $\hat{\mathcal{G}}$ a Jandl $(n-1)$-gerbe $τ_π(\hatλ)$ on the quotient loop groupoid of $\mathcal{G}$ and an ordinary $(n-1)$-gerbe $τ^{ref}_π(\hatλ)$ on the unoriented quotient loop groupoid of $\mathcal{G}$. For $n =1,2$, we interpret the character theory (resp. centre) of the category of Real $\hatλ$-twisted $n$-vector bundles over $\hat{\mathcal{G}}$ in terms of flat secti…
The twisted Drinfeld double (or quasi-quantum double) of a finite group with a 3-cocycle is identified with a certain twisted groupoid algebra. The groupoid is the loop (or inertia) groupoid of the original group and the twisting is shown geometrically to be the loop transgression of the 3-cocycle. The twisted representation theory of finite groupoids is developed and used to derive properties of the Drinfeld double, such as representations being classified by their characters. This is all motivated by gerbes and 3-dimensional topological quantum field theory. In particular the representation …
A base $Δ$ generating the topology of a space $M$ becomes a partially ordered set (poset), when ordered under inclusion of open subsets. Given a precosheaf over $Δ$ of fixed-point spaces (typically C*-algebras) under the action of a group $G$, in general one cannot find a precosheaf of $G$-spaces having it as fixed-point precosheaf. Rather one gets a gerbe over $Δ$, that is, a "twisted precosheaf" whose twisting is encoded by a cocycle with coefficients in a suitable 2-group. We give a notion of holonomy for a gerbe, in terms of a non-abelian cocycle over the fundamental group $π_1(M)$. At the…
We study the homotopy aspects of the twisted Chern classes of torsion bundle gerbe modules. Using Sullivan's rational homotopy theory, we realize the twisted Chern classes at the level of classifying spaces. The construction suggests a notion, which we call fractional U-structure serving as a universal framework to study the twisted Chern classes of torsion bundle gerbe modules from the perspective of classifying spaces. Based on this, we introduce and study higher fractional structures on torsion bundle gerbe modules parallel to the higher structures on ordinary vector bundles.
In this paper we introduce the concept of Deligne cohomology of an orbifold. We prove that the third Deligne cohomology group of a smooth étale groupoid classify gerbes with connection over the groupoid. We argue that the $B$-field and the discrete torsion in type II superstring theories are special kinds of gerbes with connection, and finally, for each one of them, using Deligne cohomology we construct a flat line bundle over the inertia groupoid, namely a Ruan inner local in the case of an orbifold.
We prove that the parallel transport of a flat $n-1$-gerbe on any given target space gives rise to an $n$-dimensional extended homotopy quantum field theory. In case the target space is the classifying space of a finite group, we provide explicit formulae for this homotopy quantum field theory in terms of transgression. Moreover, we use the geometric theory of orbifolds to give a dimension-independent version of twisted and equivariant Dijkgraaf-Witten models. Finally, we introduce twisted equivariant Dijkgraaf-Witten theories giving us in the 3-2-1-dimensional case a new class of equivariant …
We generalize the notion of a small sheaf of sets over a topological space or manifold to define the notion of a small stack of groupoids over an étale topological or differentiable stack. We then provide a construction analogous to the étalé space construction in this context, establishing an equivalence of 2-categories between small stacks over an étale stack and local homeomorphisms over it. We go on to characterize small sheaves and gerbes. We show that ineffective data of étale stacks is completely described by the theory of small gerbes. Furthermore, it is shown that étale stacks (and in…
This paper is our first step in establishing a de Rham model for equivariant twisted $K$-theory using machinery from noncommutative geometry. Let $G$ be a compact Lie group, $M$ a compact manifold on which $G$ acts smoothly. For any $α\in H^3_G (M, {\mathbb Z})$ we introduce a notion of localized equivariant twisted cohomology $H^\bullet ({\barΩ}^\bullet (M, G, L)_g, d^α_{G^g})$, indexed by $g\in G$. We prove that there exists a natural family of chain maps, indexed by $g\in G$, inducing a family of morphisms from the equivariant periodic cyclic homology $HP^G_\bullet ( C^\infty (M, α) )$, whe…
In this paper we define an associative stringy product for the twisted orbifold K-theory of a compact, almost complex orbifold X. This product is defined on the twisted K-theory of the inertia orbifold of X, where the twisting gerbe is assumed to be in the image of the inverse transgression map.
Starting with a $\mathbb{C}^*$-valued cocycle on the global quotient orbifold $X // G$, we apply transgression techniques for 2-gerbes, as developed by Lupercio and Uribe, to construct a gerbe on the orbifold loop space $\mathcal{L}(X//G)$. This gives a loop based definition of twisted equivariant Tate K-theory for finite groups that conforms to the definition that Luecke provides for compact, connected Lie groups. We relate our construction to Ganter's work on Moonshine and Huan's quasi-elliptic cohomology.
It is well-known that an effective orbifold M (one for which the local stabilizer groups act effectively) can be presented as a quotient of a smooth manifold P by a locally free action of a compact lie group K. We use the language of groupoids to provide a partial answer to the question of whether a noneffective orbifold can be so presented. We also note some connections to stacks and gerbes.
We use equivariant methods to establish basic properties of orbifold K-theory. We introduce the notion of twisted orbifold K-theory in the presence of discrete torsion, and show how it can be explicitly computed for global quotients.
We study the relationship between the twisted Orbifold K-theories ${^α}K_{orb}(\textsl{X})$ and ${^{α'}}K_{orb}(\textsl{Y})$ for two different twists $α\in Z^3(G;S^1)$ and $α'\in Z^3(G';S^1)$ of the Orbifolds $\textsl{X}=[*/G]$ and $\textsl{Y}=[*/G']$ respectively, for $G$ and $G'$ finite groups. We prove that under suitable hypothesis over the twisting $α'$ and the group $G'$ we obtain an isomorphism between these twisted K-theories.
In this paper we present a model to calculate the stringy product on twisted orbifold K-theory of Adem-Ruan-Zhang for abelian complex orbifolds. In the first part we consider the non-twisted case on an orbifold presented as the quotient of a manifold acted by a compact abelian Lie group. We give an explicit description of the obstruction bundle, we explain the relation with the product defined by Jarvis-Kaufmann-Kimura and, via a Chern character map, with the Chen-Ruan cohomology, and we explicitely calculate the stringy product for a weighted projective orbifold. In the second part we conside…
In this paper we show a Kunneth formula for Bredon cohomology for actions of a pullback of groups. We show how this formula can be used to compute orbifold twisted K-theory for some discrete twistings. Using that result we compute orbifold K-theory for some 6-dimensional orbifolds introduced by Vafa and Witten. These examples also show the limitations of the method.
We give a description of the delocalized twisted cohomology of an orbifold and the Chern character of a twisted vector bundle in terms of supersymmetric Euclidean field theories. This includes the construction of a twist functor for $1|1$-dimensional EFTs from the data of a gerbe with connection.
For a finitely generated discrete group $Γ$, the $Γ$-sectors of an orbifold $Q$ are a disjoint union of orbifolds corresponding to homomorphisms from $Γ$ into a groupoid presenting $Q$. Here, we show that the inertia orbifold and $k$-multi-sectors are special cases of the $Γ$-sectors, and that the $Γ$-sectors are orbifold covers of Leida's fixed-point sectors. In the case of a global quotient, we show that the $Γ$-sectors correspond to orbifolds considered by other authors for global quotient orbifolds as well as their direct generalization to the case of an orbifold given by a quotient by a L…
In this paper we review the combinatorics of the twisted sectors of $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$, and we exhibit a formula for the age of each of them in terms of the combinatorial data. Then we show that orbifold cohomology of $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$ when $g \to \infty$ reduces to its ordinary cohomology. We do this by showing that the twisted sector with minimal age is always the hyperelliptic twisted sector with all markings in the Weierstrass points; the age of the latter moduli space is just half its codimension in $\mathcal{M}_{g,n}$.
We compute the cohomology of crystallographic groups with holonomy of prime order. As an application we compute the group of gerbes associated to many six--dimensional toroidal orbifolds arising in string theory.
This is the first in a series of papers constructing geometric models of twisted differential K-theory. In this paper we construct a model of even twisted differential K-theory when the underlying topological twist represents a torsion class. By differential twists we will mean smooth U(1)-gerbes with connection, and we use twisted vector bundles with connection as cocycles. The model we construct satisfies the axioms of Kahle and Valentino, including functoriality, naturality of twists, and the hexagon diagram. This paper confirms a long-standing hypothetical idea that twisted vector bundles …
Lie groupoids generalize transformation groups, and so provide a natural language for studying orbifolds and other noncommutative geometries. In this paper, we investigate a connection between orbifolds and equivariant stable homotopy theory using such groupoids. A different sort of twisted sector, along with a classical theorem of tom Dieck, allows for a natural definition of stable orbifold homotopy groups, and motivates defining extended unstable orbifold homotopy groups generalizing previous definitions.
