String Connections and Chern-Simons Theory

Understand

We present a finite-dimensional and smooth formulation of string structures on spin bundles.

• It uses trivializations of the Chern-Simons 2-gerbe associated to this bundle.
• Our formulation is particularly suitable to deal with string connections: it enables us to prove that every string structure admits a string connection and that the possible choices form an affine space.
• Further we discover a new relation between string connections, 3-forms on the base manifold, and degree three differential cohomology.