Lifting problems and transgression for non-abelian gerbes (Q387032)

This paper studies the geometric interpretation of the non-abelian cohomology of a smooth manifold. For a Lie groupoid, \(\Gamma\), the set, \(\check{H}^0(M,\Gamma)\), corresponds to the groupoid \(Bun_\Gamma(M)\), of principal \(\Gamma\)-bundles on \(M\), as being its set of connected components. This is well-known. Here the centre of attention is rather \(\check{H}^1(M,\Gamma)\), but \(\Gamma\) is now to be a Lie 2-groupoid and the bicategorical model is the bigroupoid \(2-Bun_\Gamma(M)\); see, for instance, the authors' [Pac. J. Math. 264, No. 2, 355--420 (2013; Zbl 1286.55006)]. Any 2-group, \(\Gamma\), defines two invariants, \(G=\pi_0(\Gamma)\), the set of isomorphism classes, and \(A = \pi_1(\Gamma)\), the automorphism group of the unit \(1\in \Gamma_0\). \textit{L. Breen} [in: The presentation functor and the compactified Jacobian. The Grothendieck Festschrift, Collect. Artic. in Honor of the 60th Birthday of A. Grothendieck. Vol. I, Prog. Math. 86, 401--476 (1990; Zbl 0743.14034)], gave a seven term exact sequence combining non-abelian cohomology, \(\check{H}^n(M,\Gamma)\) with classical Čech groups involving \(G\) and \(A\). In this paper the authors give a geometric formulation of Breen's exact sequence in order to define a transgression map in non-abelian cohomology. This relates the degree one non-abelian cohomology of a smooth manifold (represented by gerbes) with degree zero non-abelian cohomology (represented by principal bundles). They study this transgression map in particular in the case of string manifolds, allowing a new comparison theorem for different notions of string structure. They, then, use the transgression map to establish a direct relation between string structures and spin structures on the loop space.