Lie groupoids, gerbes, and non-abelian cohomology (Q1417760)

The author gives a classification of regular groupoids \(G\) over a manifold \(M\), taking a view point complementary to that of \textit{A. Weinstein} [J. Inst. Math. Jussieu 1, 493--511 (2002; Zbl 1043.58009)]. The orbits of \(G\) over \(M\) define a foliation \(\mathcal F\) of \(M\). For a complete transversal \(T\subset M\) of \(\mathcal F\), \(G\) restricts to a Morita equivalent groupoid \(G_T\). In the first, the author studies the problem to which extent \(G\) is determined by \(G_T\). The groupoid \(G\) fits into an extension \(K\to G\to E\) where \(K\) is a bundle of connected Lie groups over \(M\) and \(E\) is a foliation groupoid over \(M\). Similarly, \(G_t\) fits into an extension \(K_T\to G_T\to E_T\) of the étale groupoid \(E_T\) over the transversal \(T\). The author shows that there is an obstruction \(\lambda(B)\in H^2(M, \underline K)\) for an extension \(K_T\to B\to E_T\), where \(\underline K\) is the sheaf of sections of the bundle \(K\). \(\lambda(B)\) vanishes iff the extension is the restriction of \(K\to G\to E\). (Theorem 5.1 for the Abelian case and Theorem 10.4 for the non-Abelian case). Moreover, the restriction functor forms a principal bundle under a group of bitorsors over \(M\) (Theorem 6.6). In the second, the author defines a relative Čech cohomology of étale groupoids by using a small (discrete) category called `embedding' category to circumbent the problem of lack of cross sections of \(G_T\to E_T\) and then proves that these extensions correspond to degree \(2\) cohomology class (Theorem 8.2 for Abelian case and Theorem 12.3 for non-Abelian case). This classification is closely related to the theory of gerbes on manifolds and on étale groupoids.