Multiplicative bundle gerbes with connection (Q973199)

Let \(M\) be a smooth manifold. A bundle gerbe \({\mathcal G}\) over \(M\) is a surjective submersion \(\pi:Y\to M\) together with a principal \(U(1)\)-bundle \(L\) over \(Y^{[2]}\) and an associative isomorphism \(\mu:\pi_{12}^*L\otimes\pi_{23}^*L\to\pi_{13}^*L\) of bundles over \(Y^{[3]}\), where \(Y^{[k]}\) denotes the \(k\)-fold fiber product of \(Y\) over \(M\), and \(\pi_{i_1\dots i_p}:Y^{[k]}\to Y^{[p]}\) are the projections on those components that appear in the index. A connection on a bundle gerbe \({\mathcal G}\) is a \(2\)-form \(C\in\Omega^2(Y)\), called curving, together with a connection \(\omega\) on \(L\) such that the isomorphism \(\mu\) is connection-preserving and \(\pi_2^*C- \pi_1^*C=\text{curv}(\omega)\), where the curvature of \(\omega\) is identified with a real-valued \(2\)-form on the base space \(Y^{[2]}\) of \(L\). The author defines a multiplicative bundle gerbe with connection over a Lie group \(G\) as a triple \(({\mathcal G}, {\mathcal M},\alpha)\) consisting of a bundle gerbe \({\mathcal G}\) with connection over \(G\) together with an invertible bimodule \({\mathcal M}:{\mathcal G}_1\otimes{\mathcal G}_2\to{\mathcal G}_{12}\otimes{\mathcal I}_{\rho}\) over \({\mathcal G}\times{\mathcal G}\), whose curvature \(\rho\) is \(\Delta\)-closed, \({\mathcal I}_{\rho}\) is the trivial bundle gerbe, and \(\alpha\) is a special bimodule isomorphism. The author presents geometrical constructions of the smooth central extensions of loop groups, Chern-Simons actions for arbitrary gauge groups, and symmetric bi-branes for WZW models with topological defect lines on multiplicative bundle gerbes with connection.