Trivializations of differential cocycles (Q2349390)

The paper under review extends the notion of trivialization of differential cocycles in differential cohomology, as defined for instance in [\textit{M. J. Hopkins} and \textit{I. M. Singer}, J. Differ. Geom. 70, No. 3, 329--452 (2005; Zbl 1116.58018)], to trivializations of their characteristic cocycle and curvature and de Rham forms. This is done by categorifying the notions of trivialization of a cocycle in ordinary differential cohomology, as well as trivializations of the corresponding characteristic cocycle, curvature form, and de Rham class (if \(x\) is a degree-\(k\) cocycle in some chain complex, then trivializations are cochains of degree \(k-1\) witnessing \(x\) as a coboundary, and morphisms between two such trivializations are degree \(k-2\) classes witnessing them as cohomologous, taken modulo differentials of degree \(k-3\) classes). The categories of trivializations associated to a given differential cocycle fit in a commutative square, analogous to the standard commutative square in which differential characters fit, and this fact is used to show that the commutative square obtained by passing to isomorphism classes of trivializations is a torsor for the the square associated to differential characters of degree one less. The paper ends with a discussion of trivializations of principal circle bundles with connection.