Higher-dimensional parallel transports (Q5945783)

Let \(E\) be a smooth vector bundle over a manifold \(X\). Given a smooth path \(\gamma\) in \(X\), a connection on \(E\) induces the parallel transport along \(\gamma\), which is an isomorphism between the fibers over the end points of the path. This applies, in particular, to line bundles equipped with connections. Thinking of a path as a map from a 1-dimensional manifold with boundary to \(X\), and of a line bundle with a connection as a 1-dimensional smooth Deligne cocycle on \(X\), the authors generalize the concept of parallel transport to the case of maps from a higher-dimensional manifold with boundary to \(X\), with respect to a higher-dimensional Deligne cocycle. To this end, the authors define the transgression map for smooth Deligne cochains by means of which they construct line bundles over an appropriate space of maps (from closed manifolds of dimension \(m\) to \(XC\)), for a smooth Deligne cocycle of degree \(m+1\). The higher-dimensional parallel transport along a smooth path \(f : N \rightarrow X\), where \(N\) is a compact manifold with boundary is provided, roughly speaking, by a certain non-vanishing global section of a line bundle as before, over \(C^{\infty}(N,X)\).