Gerbe-holonomy for surfaces with defect networks (Q989378)

Topological defects in conformal field theory have been the subject of numerous investigations in the past, especially by Christoph Schweigert and his collaborators. In this paper, Runkel and Suszek investigate a class of two-dimensional sigma models for a field \(X\) that maps a world-sheet equipped with a metric to some target space with another metric. Naturally, the main focus is on the presence of defect networks, i.e. the field \(X\) is assumed to be discontinuous across certain lines on the worldsheet. A familiar setting in which such defects occur is an orbifold where the field is periodic under the action of the automophism group of the target space, though defect conditions may be much more general. The main result of this article is the definition and the study of a special part of the sigma-model action, called the topological term, in the presence of defects. This term may be understood as the logarithm of a \(U(1)\)-valued holonomy associated with a embedding of the world-sheet into the the target space. By varying the action, one obtains a gluing condition for the field and its derivative at the defect lines. As an example, the authors treat the Wess-Zumino-Witten model with defects labelled by elements of the centre \(Z(G)\) of the target Lie group \(G\). Then they formulate in some detail the factorization properties of two-dimensional QFTs in the presence of defects comparing the correlators for different defect networks of the WZW model. The result is a 3-cocycle on \(Z(G)\). A world-sheet holonomy is formulated that is called gerbe in the literature.