Smooth one-dimensional topological field theories are vector bundles with connection (Q6091927)

Traditionally a topological field theory is a symmetric monoidal functor from a category of bordisms to a symmetric monoidal target category, usually that of vector spaces over \(\mathbb{C}\). In that approach, it is not clear how to build in ideas of smoothness as composition of smooth bordisms by gluing does not naturally preserve smoothness. The methods typically used to get around this difficulty involve the introduction of extra structure such as that of collars. This paper aims to give a definition of smooth 1-dimensional field theory that is nearer to the context of the differential geometry of the manifolds and bordisms involved. It develops a smooth version of the necessary parts of a theory of \(\infty\)-categories, adapted from the idea of a Segal space of bordisms over a given manifold, \(X\), as previously studied by \textit{J. Lurie}, [in: Current developments in mathematics, 2008. Somerville, MA: International Press. 129--280 (2009; Zbl 1180.81122)] and by \textit{S. Galatius} et al., [Acta Math. 202, No. 2, 195--239 (2009; Zbl 1221.57039)]. In this setting, composition of bordisms is only defined up to specified homotopy, and this allows the extra structure to be discarded. This approach leads to the development, here, of ideas of smooth \(\infty\)-categories that are viewed as smooth stacks. Within that setup, the authors provide the background notions to describe a space of smooth 1-dimensional topological field theories over a smooth manifold, \(X\), and then prove that that space is equivalent to the nerve of the groupoid of vector bundles with connection over \(X\) and connection-preserving isomorphisms between them.