Flat equivariant gerbes: holonomies and dualities

Understand

We examine the role of global topological data associated to choices of holonomy for flat gauge fields in string compactification.

• Our study begins with perturbative string compactification on compact flat manifolds preserving 8 supercharges in 5 dimensions.
• By including non-trivial holonomy for Wilson lines in the heterotic string and for the B-field gerbe in the type II string we find worldsheet dualities that relate these backgrounds to other string compactifications.
• While our simple examples allow for explicit analysis, the concepts and some of the methods extend to a broader class of compactifications and have implications for string dualities, perturbative and otherwise.