Transgressive loop group extensions (Q2277912)

The paper under review studies the so-called transgressive central extensions of the loop group \(LG:=C^\infty(S^1,G)\) of a Lie group \(G\), which can be explored using finite-dimensional, higher-categorical geometry over Lie groups. The transgressive extensions correspond under transgression to \(H^4(BG,\mathbb{Z})\), the degree-four cohomology group of the classifying space of \(G\). The goal of the paper is to characterize transgressive central extensions in purely loop group-theoretic terms. To this end the author considers two relations: thin homotopy and loop fusion on \(LG\), and introduces the notion of a thin fusion extension with interesting properties, which is a central extension \(\mathcal{L}\) of \(LG\) by U(1) such that both relations lift to \(\mathcal{L}\) consistently. The main result of the paper is that, for a connected Lie group \(G\), a central extension of \(LG\) is transgressive if and only if it can be equipped with the structure of a thin fusion extension. Moreover transgression is a group isomorphism between isomorphism classes of multiplicative bundle gerbes over \(G\) that admit connections and isomorphism classes of thin fusion extensions of \(LG\). If \(G\) is compact then both groups are isomorphic to \(H^4(BG,\mathbb{Z})\). The author also proves a weaker version of the Segal-Witten reciprocity law.