The fundamental Gray 3-groupoid of a smooth manifold and local 3-dimensional holonomy based on a 2-crossed module (Q531734)

In this fundamental paper the authors define the thin fundamental Gray 3-groupoid \(\mathcal S_3(M)\) of a smooth manifold \(M\) and define (by using differential geometric data ) 3-dimensional holonomies, to be smooth strict Gray 3-groupoid maps \( \mathcal S_3(M) \to \mathcal C( \mathcal H) \), where \( \mathcal H\) is a 2-crossed module of Lie groups and \( \mathcal C( \mathcal H)\) is the Gray 3-groupoid naturally constructed from \( \mathcal H\). As an application, they define Wilson 3-sphere observables.