Parallel transport of higher flat gerbes as an extended homotopy quantum field theory (Q2173525)

Homotopy quantum field theories are a flavor of topological quantum field theories defined on manifolds equipped with a map to some fixed topological space \(T\), the target space. An important example is the so-called primitive homotopy quantum field theory constructed by Turaev which is based on a singular cocycle \(\theta \in Z^n(T, U(1))\). From the text: ``We prove that the parallel transport of a flat \((n-1)\)-gerbe on any given target space gives rise to an \(n\)-dimensional extended homotopy quantum field theory. In case the target space is the classifying space of a finite group, we provide explicit descriptions for this homotopy quantum field theory in terms of transgression. Moreover, we use the geometric theory of orbifolds to give a dimension-independent version of twisted and equivariant Dijkgraaf-Witten models. Finally, we introduce twisted equivariant Dijkgraaf-Witten theories giving us in the 3-2-1-dimensional case a new class of equivariant modular tensor categories which can be understood as twisted versions of the equivariant modular categories constructed by \textit{J. Maier} et al. [Adv. Theor. Math. Phys. 16, No. 1, 289--358 (2012; Zbl 1273.81198)].'' ``In this paper we answer affirmatively the question whether the homotopy quantum field theory constructed from a cocycle \(\theta \in Z^n(T, U(1))\) can be defined coherently on manifolds of codimension two in the sense that one obtains an extended homotopy quantum field theory as defined by \textit{C. Schweigert} and \textit{L. Woike} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 224, No. 4, Article ID 106213, 42 p. (2020; Zbl 1429.57031)].'' The main result of this paper states that any cocycle \(\theta \in Z^n(T, U(1))\) on a topological space \(T\) gives rise to an \(n\)-dimensional invertible homotopy quantum field theory with target space \(T\).