The basic bundle gerbe on unitary groups (Q955122): Difference between revisions

For a unitary group \(G\), the authors give an explicit construction of the basic bundle gerbe on \(G\). In this article, a unitary group is either \(U(H)\) for \(H\) finite-dimensional or its maximal torus or the group of unitary operators \(U_{p}(H)\) differing from the identity by an operator in the Schatten ideal \(L_p(H)\) in the case that \(H\) is infinite-dimensional. All these groups have canonically \(H^{3}(G,\mathbb Z)\cong \mathbb Z\), which is one of the reasons for working with \(U_{p}(H)\) instead of \(U(H)\) in infinite dimensions. The basic bundle gerbe on \(G\) is then one whose Dixmier-Douady class is \(1\). An infinite-dimensional model for the basic bundle gerbe was constructed by \textit{J.-L. Brylinski} in [Loop spaces, characteristic classes and geometric quantization. Progress in Mathematics 107 (1993; Zbl 0823.55002)]. Finite-dimensional models have been constructed by \textit{E. Meinrenken} [Enseign. Math., II. Sér. 49, No. 3--4, 307--333 (2003; Zbl 1061.53034)] and \textit{J. Mickelsson} [``Gerbes on quantum groups'', arxiv:math.DG/0308235 (2003)]. The article under review gives a new and systematic construction of the basic bundle gerbe. In particular, this new construction does not involve the choice of a cover of \(G\) and generalises by the aid of holomorphic functional calculus to \(U_p(H)\). The introduction recalls the motivation and present constructions for bundle gerbes over unitary groups. The next section contains basic material on bundle gerbes and holomorphic functional calculus, making the article fairly self-contained. Sections three until five contain the explicit construction of the basic bundle gerbe, together with its connection and curving. The use of functional calculus provides smoothness of certain functions and differential forms, as well as explicit formulae for the curvature. This in turn leads to the main result, saying that the constructed bundle gerbe is basic. The last section is devoted to showing that it can also be seen as an equivariant bundle gerbe with respect to a natural action. Some technical calculations are deferred to an appendix.