An Invitation to Higher Gauge Theory

Understand

In this easy introduction to higher gauge theory, we describe parallel transport for particles and strings in terms of 2-connections on 2-bundles.

• Just as ordinary gauge theory involves a gauge group, this generalization involves a gauge '2-group'.
• We focus on 6 examples.
• First, every abelian Lie group gives a Lie 2-group; the case of U(1) yields the theory of U(1) gerbes, which play an important role in string theory and multisymplectic geometry.