2019/10/31 by Zimu Li, Li, Zimu · 1 citation
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Differential Geometry (math.DG) #FOS: Mathematics #FOS: Physical sciences #Homotopy and Cohomology in Algebraic Topology #Mathematical Physics (math-ph) #Noncommutative and Quantum Gravity Theories
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1910.14230
openalex publication_date 2019/10/31 · openalex created_date 2019/11/08 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
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 theory. From this perspective, we obtain a global geometric proof on a generalized 3-dimensional non-abelian Stokes' theorem related to parallel transport on surfaces. It can be naturally extended to four dimension when the underlying crossed module is replaced by crossed 2-module. This 4-dimensional Stokes' theorem yields a global formula for volume holonomy, and also guarantees its gauge invariance. In the process, we also find composition formulas for parallel transport on volumes which have been seen in the case of surfaces.